Edge of Resistance
by Lalieth
Summary: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. –Albert Einstein. This story, written as an Epic, picks up after manga chapter 200 or so and goes in a different direction.
1. Our Manifest

The Edge of Resistance

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter 1: Our Manifest**

"_Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." –Albert Einstein_

***

It was almost midnight, but no clocks were expected to strike. Here, there were no ticks, gears, chimes or bells.

How do you begin to tell a story, when there is no beginning? Sometimes Kagome Higurashi wondered how she should tell her own story (which of course was impossible). How should she begin?

_The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. (__1__)_

That one crept into her mind sometimes without warning, when she brushed her teeth or trimmed her nails or strained her ears to hear Inuyasha's breathing in the dark. She hated it. It was like the most compelling but most atrocious song ever written, that could lodge itself in one's mind for years. She could feel her rib cage on the verge of breaking with one terrific, unstoppable sob, until she forced it away by thinking of something else.

_I was born._

Never mind the words, _where_ in her life should she begin?

When Kagome tried to search for beginnings, if inclined to be at all gracious toward her fate, she would look back with unwavering vision to her fifteenth birthday, when she tumbled through an abandoned well and without warning found herself in another world, in another time.

_In a hole in the ground, there lived a half-demon._

Years ago, while still in high school, Kagome learned that the imperial clergy recorded a total solar eclipse in the year 680 AD. The record showed an eclipse of the moon sixteen days later, followed by the death of the imperial priest on the next day. When the emperor took ill ten days after that, it was decided that, for the protection of the kingdom against any additional misfortune, one hundred persons would be made to enter religious duty as monks.

Power in the country changed many times in the following centuries, and descendents of those one hundred monks scattered over most of the country. One such descendent was a famous priestess who, by accounts historical and mythical, met her fate in a cave not far from present day Tokyo, centuries after the eclipse of 680.

So it was that if Kagome found she could not be so gracious, if she was exasperated by the interminable cycles of her memories, by the implacable trappings of her enemies, and the mercilessness drought of her friends, she would leap back over fifteen hundred years of twisted fate and curse the day the moon blocked the sun.

_The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new._

The useless ritual, intended to give her some sense of blamelessness, remained forever futile. Unable to give it up, she cursed her misfortune even as midnight came and went with so much as a whisper.

It was the beginning of yet another birthday, but she did not realize it yet. Kagome, shivering and panting in a dark and damp cavern beneath the roots of a great oak, mulled over her bitterness, realizing that the road that had led her here had been dry, dusty, and well trodden, that the great dark around her could have passed for any of a hundred nights in her life. She hid in the dark from the Saimyoushou, from the iron sickle of her best friend's brother. She huddled in the palpable blackness hoping, as she always did, that Inuyasha would find her. Once again, she relived the feeling that she had been through all of this before. This unsettling sensation of déjà vu had occurred with such intensity as of late that she often debated with herself whether one could ever know, for sure, that one was not dreaming.

With both grimy hands clamped over her knees, Kagome held her breath and strained her ears until she thought she could feel them growing. The buzzing of the Saimyoushou had vanished. A few more minutes passed before she could work up the courage to emerge from her hiding place and make a break for it. She decided, as she always did, to head in the general direction of Edo with all possible speed, and to trust— _to hope—_ that Inuyasha would be able to smell her out once he had fought off Naraku.

She never considered the possibility that Inuyasha would fall to the disgusting demon, in the same way that she never once believed that Inuyasha would win (not anymore). Kagome no longer felt the tinniest shred of guilt for these private and gloomy thoughts, because they were based on experience so repetitious that she had as much right to believe them as she had to believe the sun would rise in the east.

_But what about Kohaku?_

No matter how many twists and turns Kagome took in the endless corridors of her mind, she could not flush out an answer, a way for Sango's ill-fated brother to be freed from Naraku and yet live. Even if they were successful in removing the hapless boy from Naraku's grasp, the fact remained that the sacred jewel shard embedded in his back was the only thing that stalled the claim of Death, and it would have to be removed. Though she knew this misfortune to be the source of _Sango's_ suffering, Kagome was cold, wet, and miserable enough at that moment to feel just a little pity for herself. She could not suppress the disgust that her miserable fate stirred within her.

No sounds could be heard outside at all, not even night birds or insects. Unusual in most places, but not in a land tainted by Naraku's presence. Now was the time. She had to make a break for it.

"Damn it," she muttered, emerging from her cover. "Where _is_ he?"

---

The reader should note on the onset that our heroine did not make a habit of fleeing from even the most terrifying battles. The series of events were laid out thus:

During his ambition to become master of all wills Naraku had managed to make enemies of everyone he encountered, and several people had, like Kagome and her friends, tracked his scent of rotting death and corruption to the same place.

Years of searching had rendered little more than momentary skirmishes that accomplished nothing. For all the time, trouble, and suffering, all that came of it was more loss piled on old losses. Inuyasha and his friends had no choice but rely on clues that Naraku left behind in a paltry trail of crumbs. These hints were almost always nothing more than dark rumors, whispers among rustic villages of an unknown terror that lay in ambush in the night, in deep forests and cold caves, with power that severed bone and poison that crept under doors and into cradles.

This time, however, they had a direct link: the unmistakable traces of Naraku's own scent that Inuyasha could follow with his supernatural nose.

After four and a half days of tracking his trail through the mountains north of Edo, Inuyasha and his companions believed that they had trapped Naraku in the shadows of a narrow ravine. They were fortunate that they had found him away from his castle, the greatest concentration of his power.

Alas, Naraku was no mouse. It should never be assumed that he is ensnared by any misstep or miscalculation on his part. It is quite possible that our valiant friends knew this even as they closed in around him, but they could not keep themselves off the torture wheel of old habits.

His first move was all he intended and all he needed.

Kohaku, who had grown quite strong in the years of his slavery, leapt forward from behind his master without word or warning. He snatched Kagome by the waist and bounded off with her into the forest, like a fox with a rabbit in its teeth.

Inuyasha did not have time to react. Within seconds, the air became a screen of inky putrefaction. Sango and Miroku were forced to take to the sky on Kirara's back. Inuyasha's lungs were in no immediate danger but his senses were overwhelmed.

With a shuddering effort—while Sango and Miroku strained to peer into the blackness, and in the woods Kagome had escaped from Kohaku only moments before—Inuyasha made the best guess he could regarding Naraku's location and heaved his sword above his head, unleashing his weapon's most powerful attack.

It was clear that the attack did not hit Naraku, but it did weaken and dispel most of the miasma, allowing Sango and Miroku, wearing masks, to descend.

It was at this moment that Kikyou arrived, pulled by the sense of her enemy and by her own inescapable fate. Immune to the toxic air, she surveyed the scene in an instant, noting the absence of Kagome and registering the bitterness of inevitability.

"Kikyou," Naraku almost purred, "you have come. I knew you would."

Inuyasha gave only the briefest of glances in the direction of his old lover. He was too consumed with hatred and too intent on locating the source of that loathsome voice.

"Why don't you go ahead and get your good-byes out of the way, Naraku," he shouted. "While you still have a chance!"

The response was only the customary, bodiless chuckle, a sound they all knew as well as rain. Naraku towered over them, hoisted on his ruinous body of tentacles and rotting demon flesh.

"So hasty," the enemy leered. "There are others expected at our happy reunion. Do you not want to wait until they arrive?"

"I don't know what you're going on about," Inuyasha grated through gnashed teeth, "and I don't care. Today is the day I take care of you once and for all!"

Just as Kagome never doubted the inevitability of these encounters, Inuyasha never seemed to recognize his own role in the cycles. He was sure he knew where to strike this time. He would hit him now. Inuyasha raised his sword again.

Naraku's laugh fell like ice on the shoulders. It was the mirth of someone who knew the trick was accomplished before others even saw it. Inuyasha remembered Kohaku and wondered again if the boy was truly capable of murdering Kagome. Sango and Miroku planted their feet apart on the ground with stoic determination, but their expressions betrayed their dread. Naraku continued to mock them.

"Fools," he spat. "It took _nothing_ to lure you here. You are my puppets! As much so as that witless boy! And now that your precious little priestess is dead, all your hope is gone!"

"Kikyou," he turned to the undead woman who was already leveling her arrow at his chest. "You will not be able to substitute for her. No amount of black magic will make you live again."

Miroku, Sango, and Shippou stood frozen with fear, trying so hard to appear imperturbable for Inuyasha's sake, for each other's sake, yet somewhere hidden in their hearts not believing that anything was truly happening.

Because nothing _ever_ truly happened.

"Now," the monster continued to gloat, "another party has arrived. _He_ will make short work of them both, if they still live. I am sure of it."

Inuyasha had started to turn around, to sprint in the direction that Kagome had been taken, but then he thought better of it. Kagome could take care of herself, marginally anyway. And even if she could not—if she were already dead—nothing could be done about it now. He _must not_ let Naraku escape.

Anyway, it was easy for him to disregard the gloating of Naraku, the lord of lies and master of deceit.

And besides, nothing ever _truly_ happens.

"Another demon _is_ approaching," Kikyou said, as if guessing his thoughts. She was standing close to him now, so close it startled him. "A powerful one."

"Well, Naraku," Inuyasha said with a display of resignation, "it seems the only real choice now is to kill you."

In his head, Inuyasha could hear his words tumble from his mouth and had the unsettling impression of being pulled by invisible strings. Though he already knew the ending, Inuyasha unleashed his sword a second time.

But in that instant, in a haze of swirling miasma and hollow laughter, Naraku pulled away and made his exit with all the ease with which he appeared. The air aided him as it pulled away from the collection of enemies like a vacuum, stealing breath and leaving only a cavern of silence.

To his credit, Inuyasha did not waste a moment cursing the very thing that had happened a hundred times before, nor questioning Kikyou or wondering why the priestess was here. He assumed that everything she did was to further her single-minded goal of Naraku's death. He turned to dash into the woods, leaving Kikyou standing in the ravine. Already racing into the forest, he started to turn back to call to Kikyou, thinking that he should not leave her alone. But she was already gone.

He would kill him this time.

Inuyasha knew that this would deliver yet another sick thrill to his enemy. Although he was loath to carry out Naraku's wishes, this Kohaku situation had gone on long enough. The boy made repeated appearances in Naraku's schemes as the decoy, ever the impenetrable dilemma, the escape plan. Naraku knew that they were unwilling to kill Sango's luckless brother and he was laughing at them for it. Enough was enough.

If Kagome was hurt—his habitual way of thinking preventing Inuyasha from considering "dead" with any real seriousness—Kohaku would have to pay for it with his own blood, brainwashed or not.

He darted among the trees with the careful and careless leaps of a deer.

---

It was all too easy to understand the implied threat of Naraku's parting words. Sango could see straight away that the devil intended to make Kohaku kill Kagome. There might have been someone else out there who could do harm to them, but that did not matter. If Kohaku killed or even hurt Kagome, there would be no way to stop Inuyasha from extracting revenge. In truth, she was not sure she would even try.

It was true that the boy was under the complete control of Naraku. What was more, he had no memory left to him of his former life, so he could not be expected to owe her any allegiance. Nonetheless, it remained that Kohaku's hands were stained with the blood of many innocents, many atrocities. What forgiveness could he ever hope for, if he even knew hope at all? What point was there in keeping him alive?

Sango's thoughts spiraled downward into a familiar pattern. What point was there left in anything? They would both be better off…

A sudden swell of a confused haze of déja vu overcame her train of thought. It smothered her mind like black oil. Soaring through the hot night air on Kirara's back with the familiar presence of Miroku behind her, she fumbled with the feeling and tried to sort it out. Then she remembered something.

"Miroku," Sango's voice was tense, "can you sense anything? Do you have any idea who Naraku was talking about?"

The two of them were riding Kirara about thirty feet above the treetops, trying to keep up with Inuyasha. Miroku's arms held tight her waist, the only situation where she would tolerate such closeness and not suspect lechery. He closed his eyes for a moment.

"No," he said. "I sense a very powerful presence, as powerful as Naraku, or almost. But I'm not sure who it is. Maybe it's just another detachment."

"I don't think so," Sango answered after a moment of consideration. "No single detachment of Naraku's is ever that powerful."

"You're right," he raised his voice over the howling wind while they sped over the meadows. "I guess we'll find out soon enough, one way or another."

They were quiet for a moment. Then Miroku cleared his throat. Sango could feel that he wanted to ask or say something, something that made him uncomfortable. But at that moment, she saw Inuyasha. She could see that he was standing with Kagome, but she could not make out much more through the blackness of the trees. Was Kohaku hidden in the shadows? Was he already dead?

"Look!" she pointed toward Inuyasha. "There they are."

Miroku could discern the half-demon by his red kimono, distinct in the full moon, like a shell of blood.

"Sango," Miroku held on tighter for a split second, "what if…?"

She ignored him and had Kirara land a few feet from the unfolding scene.

---

By the time of Naraku's departure, Kagome had already managed to escape from Kohaku, evading his attempt to impale her on his weapon almost as soon as they came into the dark cover of the trees. She hid herself in the closing dark under the great tree as long as she dared, and then emerged.

She did not get far. The Saimyoushou had departed but Kohaku remained, waiting in the shadows. She did not see him at first, but sensed his jewel shard and whirled in time to find that he was shockingly close to her, raising his kusarikama. Panicking, she leapt away and fumbled for her own weapon.

There are few words to describe the tearing agony of Kagome's heart. She stared into the boy's eyes and saw only the desolation of death. Despite his prowess, he was still just a boy, and no match for her arrows.

"Inuyasha!" she cried out, hoping to save herself from a fate almost worse than death. Kagome bit her lip to keep from crying.

From this, there will be no expiation.

Kagome drew her bow and aimed at the chest of the boy who stood in its crosshairs without caring.

Someone was closing in and for only a second Kagome had a small hope that it was Inuyasha, coming to her aid at last. However, she realized that the demonic aura that prickled her skin was far too great. Even the listless boy began darting his dead eyes about, searching for the demonic presence to emerge, for the power to show itself. Then she saw him.

"Oh _shit_."

She had forgotten how fast he could move. It had been many months since she last saw him, an endless amount of time. There he was in a flash of light, standing between her and her would be killer-victim in perfect clarity.

"I know I can always expect the warmest greetings, Priestess," he said in a flat tone, without bothering to look at her.

"Wh—what…?" she stammered, and then scrambled to gather her thoughts and focus on the new threat (and also to appear a little more dignified).

"Sesshoumaru, what are you doing here?" she demanded. "What do you want?"

Sesshoumaru ignored the question, and Kagome noted with irritation that she might have expected as such. The perilous dog demon faced Kohaku. The boy, in his soulless state, did not even have the presence of mind to flinch.

Kagome screamed for Kohaku to run, knowing before she did so that it was useless.

"Where is your master?" Sesshoumaru demanded.

Kohaku's answer was a blank stare.

"Boy," the demon's voice was level but threatening. "I weary of your mindlessness."

Then Sesshoumaru raised his hand, flexing his claws.

Kagome cried out again, conscious of her small, high-pitched voice.

"Sesshoumaru! Don't! I'm begging you not to do it!"

Sesshoumaru took two steps toward the hapless adolescent, who in turn raised his kusarikama.

A sudden relief washed over Kagome when she realized that she would not have to be the one to kill Kohaku. The feeling was cut short by the subsequent scorch of guilt that withered her insides.

"What the hell?" a familiar voice rang out behind her. "Sesshoumaru! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Inuyasha shot into the scene like a bright flare. He gave Kohaku a smart rap to the right temple and the boy fell to the ground like a sack of rice. Inuyasha turned to face his half-brother.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed "Thank goodness you're all right. You have to stop him. He was going to kill—"

A burst of energetic air in the clearing cut her off. The wind sorceress Kagura appeared as if out of nowhere and came between Sesshoumaru and the boy. Her look was one of someone delighted at her own cleverness and, for a split second, Kagome thought she looked at Sesshoumaru with undisguised greed.

"Sorry kids," she said in an easy, even familiar tone, "but I'm going to have to break up this little party."

Sesshoumaru did not react, but regarded her with a cold stare. Kagura pulled the boy onto the feather, and Kohaku let himself be moved like a doll. They did not fly away at first. Instead, she stayed hovering only a short distance in front of Sesshoumaru, with one brazen and bare foot still on the ground.

"Well?" she asked, looking him in the eyes with a pert expression. A challenge of some sort hung in the air, but neither Kagome nor her friends understood it.

Sesshoumaru remained motionless for a moment, but then gave a barely perceptible shrug and turned away. Kagura's look was triumphant. She rose higher in the air and looked at Kagome and Inuyasha.

"I hope you're not going to give up now, that would be so boring," she said with exaggerated petulance.

"Feh!" Inuyasha spat, "you should be so lucky!"

Kagura only laughed, lifting her vessel without effort.

"Kagura, wait!" Sango cried out.

Kagura appeared startled, but she hesitated.

The demon slayer went on. "I don't understand. I thought Naraku wanted Kohaku dead. He as much said so himself."

Kagura's look was direct. "It is useless to try to understand _that_ one," she answered, voice dripping with contempt. "Besides, the Saimyoushou are not here. I'll just tell him that the boy got away on his own and I found him wandering in the wild."

The implications of that statement shocked Kagome and her friends. Sango gaped at the demoness and could say nothing as she watched Kagura flew away into the velvet night sky. The she cupped her hands in front of her mouth, lowered her head, and sank to her knees.

Miroku wanted to comfort his comrade. He wanted to place an arm around her shoulders and stay there until she stopped crying. In that moment, Miroku would have traded his soul to offer the only woman he had every known any real comfort. But he was hindered by the fear in his heart and by the dream he had constructed of himself. He could not reach out through the steel encasing of his joints.

Sango had waded through the black oil of her strange thoughts, and now she recognized the truth without any doubts. Kagome was convinced, realizing now that she had been all along. Kikyou felt it even as she wrapped herself in her own solitude before the coming of dawn. Kagura could not escape it as she flew back to her prison, lifting all her loathing and contempt into the air by sheer will. Miroku knew it as he watched the familiar disintegration in Sango's eyes.

They had done all this before.

_The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new._

***

[End of Chapter 1]

[Next chapter: Our Elixirs]

1 Samuel Beckett, _Murphy_


	2. Our Elixirs

**The Edge of Resistance**

Book One: The Dreaming World

**Chapter Two: Our Elixirs**

"_But then," thought Alice. "Shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort, one way--never to be an old woman--but then--always to have lessons to learn!" – Lewis Carroll_

***

Sesshoumaru regarded the departure of Kagura and Kohaku with his regular air of unconcern. Unlike certain other individuals in our tale, Sesshoumaru was capable of recognizing patterns when he saw them; it was only that they did not trouble him as much, in part because of the horizon-less nature of his life.

"Well?" Inuyasha leveled his sword and glared at his brother, ignoring the evidence of his companions' despair. "Are you coming at me? Or did you just want to stand there while I cut you to pieces?"

Sesshoumaru did not even glance in his direction, but turned and walked away.

"Hey!" Inuyasha's tone was indignant. "Where the hell do you think you're going? I'm talking to you!"

"Inuyasha," Kagome said in a tired, but ominous tone. "SIT!"

Sesshoumaru left them behind without another word and without looking back. The demon lord's reasons for doing or saying anything were a complete mystery to everyone who knew him (and these were few). It was never entirely clear why he (apparently) detested his brother so strongly. No one knew precisely why he (supposedly) aimed to destroy Naraku. Perhaps the biggest mystery of them all was the (assumed) revival of the young human girl, Rin, who was now (evidently) one of his few companions.

The truth was Sesshoumaru considered the life of the monster Naraku to be a thing he had not gotten around to crushing under his heel, like the silverfish found in the bath in his home. The fact that at least several years had passed (maybe more—he didn't keep very good track of time) since he had resolved to kill the wretched degenerate (his customary name for Naraku) simply did not impress him, because for Sesshoumaru time stretched out in an altogether different way. Sesshoumaru was like the rock that took the beating of the sea and never wore down. He would outlast them all.

Thus, on this occasion, without attempting to follow his enemy or deal with his brother, he went home. Why? It's anyone's guess.

Sesshoumaru's lands consisted of vast acres left to him by his father, which lay to the southwest, near the shores of Toutoumi. The land began at a flat coast with many inlets, gentle beaches and deep harbor waters that were dark and cold. The wide and lazy Tenryu flowed from far away mountains, cutting many valleys and snaking across the expansive coastal plain, finally meeting the sea off to the northwest in a wide maze of marshes. The green, mild slopes that swept away from this plain and up to the foothills ended in the mountain range Shikoku. The taller, jagged peaks of the Hakusan were a faint blue in the distance.

The Hyouden (which properly is the name for the lands but has come to mean the actual house) stood nestled against a steep cliff facing the plains, and the Tenryu River, to the north. In truth, it was not quite large enough to be called a palace (it was called that more because of the majesty of its inhabitant), but its position against the rock wall made the north face appear to tower above the Fields of Eternal Snow.

Sesshoumaru did not staff his palace, if you will allow the word, with the various assortments of servants that so pleased other lords. That many people underfoot would only annoy him and he would inevitably get peevish, leading to several luckless souls losing life and limb, not necessarily in that order. Since he did not need anything, he had decided long, long ago that he was better off alone.

And alone he would be, solitude in its perfection. That is, if certain individuals had not insisted on attaching themselves to him, recently in his life.

When Sesshoumaru first encountered Jaken, the little imp was well on his way to becoming brunch for some random demon, more girth than brains. By the time of our story, Sesshoumaru could no longer recall what that demon looked like. He had cut the demon down for no other reason than because it refused to step aside.

Unfortunately for the would-be-Jaken-eater, Sesshoumaru was particularly peevish that day.

Without hesitation, Jaken insisted on becoming the demon lord's servant, dogging his steps and pleading, cajoling, and flattering in a wailing, piteous clamor. The puny creature seemed quite overwhelmed by Sesshoumaru's presence. On several occasions, Sesshoumaru considered curing the toad's affliction with a slash of his claws, but he never quite got around to it. Before long, the presence of the small demon was like the presence of the sky. He figured he'd never had an attendant before, perhaps it would be convenient.

So far, it had not shown itself to be all that convenient. But it was not a hindrance either, so he allowed the situation to continue.

The matter of Rin was much more strange. No one knew what possessed him to use his legendary sword to revive the human girl, after wolves had killed her, and afterwards he never spoke of it. He allowed her to stay with him because he was convinced, rather glumly, that only physical violence would dissuade her. Sesshoumaru was ruthless, but he did not cut down little girls. The thought of Rin's blood on his hands made him feel strangely sick, and he decided to believe it was because to cut down such a tiny, helpless creature would be grossly beneath him.

What if it was someone else doing it? Would that then be any less acceptable? That never occurred to him, or perhaps it did, but he preferred to not think about it.

Sometimes, the notion that this girl had somehow overthrown him caused him some momentary consternation. But he preferred to not think about that either.

That was how Sesshoumaru's life had become what it was in the summer of 1496. It was a three-day journey to his palace from the ravine where he had encountered the wind sorceress and the boy-puppet—or at least it would be for anyone else. Sesshoumaru arrived home before breakfast the next day. His home was the perfect picture of order and structure it had always been. Jaken and Rin greeted him in the usual fashion, appearing for the entire world that they had waited in pristine array in that very spot the entire length of his absence. He occasionally wondered how they truly lived while he was away, but always abandoned the thought rather quickly, since it did not concern him.

It concerned Jaken however. The "adoption" of the girl Rin had forever changed his life. In truth, Rin was not a child of this world. She had been raised among a family of traveling peddlers who had succumbed in the end to the terrors of the night. Far from giving in herself however, Rin had simply moved on without them. It was not because she experienced no sorrow, for indeed she and sorrow were deep friends, but because she had chosen not to trouble herself about death. Thus, life among immortals seemed perfectly natural to her. She reached adolescence in a magnificent innocence, completely unburdened by any passionate feelings whatsoever.

Though he would deny it with vehemence, Jaken had come to care for the girl, if for no other reason than prolonged companionship and a common bond. With the years flying by, he tried in his own fumbling, ignorant way to prepare her for adult life in the world; or at least what he imagined it to be among humans. He anticipated that Sesshoumaru would expect her to leave upon reaching a marriageable age. On what information he based this assumption there is no way to know.

"Your husband and his family will expect much from you," he said to her once over laundry. "Things will not always be skipping around barefoot in the grass you know. There is a lot of work, and you have to keep working even when you're tired, because you will have children to worry about."

He was wasting his time, because Rin cared only for the comfort of her lord and was completely inclined to indolence if she had no direction from him. What was more, she could not imagine her life without him.

The most exasperating thing about her was that she had no love for convention, or even regular habits. She ate whenever she was hungry and wherever in the house the air was most comfortable. She would sometimes rise before dawn and amuse herself until lunch by making crowns of daisies, stepping on the silverfish in the baths, or by moving things about when Jaken's back was turned. On other occasions, she would keep an interminable vigilance over the stars and sleep until mid-afternoon. Eventually, Jaken gave up entirely on ever turning her into a useful woman.

When Sesshoumaru was at home however, things were different. Rin's attention always became wholly absorbed in his pleasure. She made sure that there were warm meals (she could never fully accept that he did not need to eat), clean dishes, swept floors, and crisp sheets. Always amazed, Jaken would watch the girl go from indulgent sloth one minute, to obsessing over spotted china the next. And since she wanted to be with Sesshoumaru to the greatest extent possible while he was home, she would slip seamlessly into a habit of early rising and regular meals.

It was only in the quiet watches of the night that Jaken had any peace. At these times, he would often think about his home, left far behind, and their future, ever unclear to him. Though loath to admit it, he feared for Rin. What sort of creature would she become, alone in a bemused dawn of adulthood? She had no companions, no skills, and no prospects. He considered broaching the subject with his lord, but something always held him back.

When Sesshoumaru returned home this time, both Jaken and Rin could tell that things had not gone well. Years of living with the icy prince of the West had taught them to read the minute danger signals that others would never notice. They did not dare inquire about Naraku's current state of health. It was their first meal together in weeks, and they ate in total silence. That is, _they_ ate and Sesshoumaru sipped sake out of what they could only guess was some obscure notion of tradition.

After a short time, Jaken could tell that Rin was finished eating by the way she was pushing her food around on her plate and staring dreamily into space. He scowled at her fuzzy-headedness and gathered the clinking plates into a pile.

"Jaken," his lord's voice was a smooth knife. "We will depart again in the morning."

Sesshoumaru never gave a reason for sometimes taking them with him and other times leaving them behind. He did not explain and they did not ask. Rin leapt to her feet and could not contain an outburst of joy. She almost made a move to hug Sesshoumaru but remembered his distaste for closeness. Instead, she gave a low bow and rushed off to pack a small bag.

The very next morning, before the sun had peeked over the sea, the trio was well on their way. The grass was wet with dew but, because it was July, it was already quite warm.

Rin loved summer mornings. Everything was alive and busy making preparation for another day. She bounded along the path (with what Jaken thought was an overly childish abandon for someone her age), singing silly songs and chattering about what she saw. Sesshoumaru seemed largely indifferent to her noise and although Jaken was normally quick to tell her to be quiet, this morning he was inclined to let her go. It was too early for the hassle anyway.

"My Lord," Jaken started with caution. "Might I be so bold as to inquire where we are headed?"

One never knew if Sesshoumaru would answer a question, ignore a question, or bonk you on the head.

"South," came the generous response.

---

_Why does it _always_ end up like this?_

Inuyasha and his companions were moving south-southwest on a leisurely road that followed the long gentle slope of the land down to the coast. Little had remained of the encounter in the ravine, except for the scars left on the earth by Tessaiga. Dawn had broken, and Kagome's legs trembled with exhaustion. She noted with some bitterness that the frequency of sleepless nights did not mean she was any more accustomed to them. She knew this road well, and mused that it could be any time of any day from the last few years of her life and it would not matter. They all looked and felt indistinguishable.

Despite their exhaustion they had passed several villages without stopping. None of them mentioned it, but they all shared a sense of anxiousness to return to Kaede. The gentle but robust woman had a way of making them feel secure. It did not seem strange to them to quit their journey and go "home", to give no further thought, for the moment, to the pursuit of Naraku.

Kagome gazed at the crystalline beauty of the dawn but took no pleasure in it. Instead, she imagined telling the seething dog-demon that she meant to return home through the well almost as soon as they reached Edo.

The most recent appearance of his less-than-lovable brother had left Inuyasha in a foul mood. But every encounter with either Naraku or Sesshoumaru had that effect. The scarlet-clad half-demon was currently fuming several yards in front of the rest of them. Kagome had made a few fairly feeble attempts at placating him after the whole "sit" affair, but in truth she felt she had done what was best at the time, and if he wanted to sulk about it, that was his problem.

When they crested the precipitous hill that overlooked the tiny village cradled by the shallow stream, she faced the facts. There was no sense in starting the worst of it in Kaede's hut. She squared her shoulders and approached him with care.

"Inuyasha," she began sweetly.

Inuyasha was in no mood for sweet. He did not even look at her. She began walking beside him, trying to keep up with his brisk pace. Their companions had already read the warning signs and were subtly increasing the distance between the pair and themselves.

"Listen," she began. "I know you're not going to like it, but I have to go home for a little while. But I promise I'll be back in a day or so." She laughed a little, which she frequently did when she was uncomfortable or unhappy.

The response was more cordial than usual.

Inuyasha turned on her in the middle of the road, fists clenched at his sides and eyes baleful.

"I don't give a damn what you do, stupid bitch!" he shouted.

Things went downhill rather rapidly at that point.

Kagome knew that he shouted at her and called her names because he could not attack the people he truly wanted to attack. That did not stop her, however, from using him in the same manner. Before they even had enough time to raise their voices with real gusto, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou had already made a hasty and prudent withdrawal. They made their way with determination to the comfort of Kaede's small, thatched house.

All in all, it could have been a nice, satisfying little fight. But the unease of feeling trapped in the endless cycles of their enemy, combined with Inuyasha's useless brooding over Kikyou, made them both too distracted to give their insults a decent edge. It quickly degraded into a tedious repetition of "stupid asshole" and "useless wench" that bounced off the surrounding hills until finally, both disgusted with trying to get in the last word, they threw up their arms and stalked away.

Kaede, who always seemed to know when they were coming, had meals already laid out for all of them. The friends not preoccupied with childish name-calling were able to sit down in her hut to eat in peace. For the most part, their breakfast was a mirror of a ritual being practiced at that very moment in the Hyouden. They ate in silence. Inuyasha returned only to gobble down his food, and then stalked outside again.

None of the travelers felt inclined to describe the incident of the previous night (or early morning) to Kaede. It was too much for them to revisit the weight of inevitability so heavy with hopelessness. Sadly, they did not need to say anything.

After they had finished their meals, each member withdrew in their own fashion to their accustomed solitude. It was not that they were always antisocial with each other. After most encounters with their enemy, however, they were inclined more often than not to nurse their own personalized wounds in private.

When Kaede saw that Inuyasha and his friends would be staying in her hut for the night, she immediately set to work preparing places for them to bed. Despite the lengthening years and her tendency to portliness, and throughout the constant nuisance of crickets and insomnia, Kaede flitted about the corners of her hut setting tasks to completion with the tenacity of an ant.

After spending most of the day in meditation and domestic chores, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou attempted to bed down early in Kaede's hut, while Inuyasha slept outside, as was his custom. They were exhausted, but nonetheless their minds could not leave the matter of the events in the ravine alone. Sango fell into the dark thoughts that always awaited her at night, concerning her fate and that of her brother. Miroku was unable to overcome the choking feeling of being trapped in his own skin. He felt such an incredible need to reach out from…

But he could not figure out where he was imprisoned.

To make matters worse, the July night was oppressive. The air outside was electrified with heat and with the songs of toads, all contained by a forced stillness that seemed ready to explode. Lying on grass mats and covered only in the lightest linens, Sango and Miroku both lay stewing in their restless frustration. They became obsessed with the notion that everyone else could hear the wheels turning in their heads.

Unable to bear it any longer, Sango threw off her sheet, which was weighted with her sweat, and walked outside into the night. She was intent on going down into the stream to bathe, or at least to soak her hair, anything to cool her agitation. Predictably, Miroku rose to follow her. At first she was annoyed, but then she decided that it was too hot and uncomfortable to be annoyed. If he insisted on coming along, she would only soak her hair.

Miroku caught up to her. "Sango," he asked once he had fallen in step beside her, "is something wrong?"

"No," she tried not to reveal her agitation. "Nothing. I couldn't sleep. I'm going down to the river."

"Why?"

"To make a hole in it!" she snapped.

"I'll join you then," he replied coolly, looking her in the eye. They were silent for a moment.

"Miroku," her voice was firm. "I'm only going to soak my hair, that's all. There won't be any more skin than you see now."

Miroku's face assumed a shocked, innocent expression. "Sango!"

"Whatever."

Twenty minutes later, the two of them were sitting on deep, lush grass watching the fireflies perform their mysterious dance above the surface of the placid waters. Sango did feel a little better. There was a nice breeze out on the hilltops. Still, she felt that returning to the hut would be a mistake.

Miroku, for his part, was completely relaxed. To his way of thinking, nothing could be finer than a summer night under the stars, with a lovely maiden for company. So when Sango began a conversation, he let his guard down a bit more than perhaps he should have.

Was it not remarkable that her simple and quiet companionship had banished, or at least eased, his burden of anxiety and loneliness? Alas that he did not think about it.

"Miroku," she asked, "do you think Kagome and Inuyasha will ever be happy?"

Miroku twirled a clover blossom between his fingers. "I don't know," he answered after a moment. "But I doubt it."

"What do you think will happen to them?"

"I don't know actually," Miroku mused, gazing at Sango's delicate feet, "but they won't stop acting the way they do until something forces them to change. They care about each other, but there's nothing they can do about it. There's no future in it."

"Hmm," Sango sighed. "Perhaps you're right. It's very sad."

Miroku shrugged. "I don't know, I think they enjoy it."

Sango sat upright. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"Well…" Miroku fumbled for the words, unaware of the change in his companion's tone. "It gives them something to think about besides Naraku. And they're both so used to suffering in this fashion. Love does that to people sometimes."

"Oh? And how is that?" Now Sango's voice had a definite edge to it, but he still failed to pick up the signal. In truth he was trying too hard not to think, and he was paying scant attention to the conversation at hand.

"Well I mean," he crashed on. "It messes with their heads. Makes them behave irrational and crazy. It's like a disease."

"What a_ fascinating_ observation."

He even missed that one.

"Yeah, I'm glad you're not like other wo—" before he could finish, Sango's towel landed on his face with a wet, forceful smack.

"You know something, monk?" she was now standing beside him with her hands on her hips. "Sometimes you make me positively sick!"

With a huff and a stamp of her small (and lovely) foot, she turned away and stalked back towards the hut.

Miroku lifted the towel-turned-missile and pivoted himself around on his elbows to stare after her in amazement. "What did I say?"

She ignored him.

Inuyasha heard the entire exchange from his perch on Kaede's roof. He suppressed a powerful urge to shake all of them by the scruff of the neck. Howling idiotically at the moon also sounded like a fine idea, in his near-crazed frustration. Why weren't they getting anywhere? Why did he feel like he was mindlessly chasing and nipping at his own tail?

_Is this it? Am I just going to keep running in circles like a confused bug until Naraku finally steps on me?_

These questions bothered him like a constant ringing in his ears and made him irritable. He hadn't been that angry with Kagome for "sitting" him, he was used to that by now. He had only picked a fight with her to vent the frustration left in the wake of his enemy, and it had not worked out as well as he would have liked. He fidgeted a bit with his sword to get comfortable and then crossed his arms and closed his eyes. After swatting a few of the braver mosquitoes that landed on his neck, he sighed dejectedly.

He heard his mother's voice in his head. _Go to sleep, Inuyasha._

It seemed there would be little sleep that night.

---

Five hundred years later, Kagome opened the door to her mother's home and stepped into the kitchen. It was late morning and the house was vacant. The silence pressed in all around her. It was like an empty concert hall and the small sounds that normally no one notices were greatly exaggerated. The ticking of clocks, the white hum of the refrigerator, the whisper of the highways; all these things felt surreal to Kagome at first, and they intruded into her mind like painful needles.

_Is this the home planet? Am I the alien?_

The ticking reminded her of an old, recurring vision, a daydream that stuck in her mind because she obsessed over it without trying to. What she needed was a bomb. She couldn't help but believe it. A sudden, rending, tearing explosion that would wipe everything away from the surface of the earth, like the giant hand of God, so deliciously irrevocable.

A wake-up bomb. Somehow, that…well, that would just fix everything.

She had not been in the house long when she heard sounds from the front door that signaled her family's return. Kagome did not announce her presence right away, but sat still in the family room. She listened to the noise of her relatives, so normal in their chatter and their footsteps, doors closing, and keys rattling. Kagome enjoyed these moments, because inside of them her family could be _truly_ seen (or heard), before they put on their "Kagome" faces. She listened with greed to fragments of conversation, picking up "mop", "soap", and "bread".

Kagome sat still and imagined that she was a ghost, reveling in the signs of the living, of a past life. She shook the thoughts away when she heard their footfalls in the adjacent room, in the kitchen, and she rose to her feet.

"Hey," she called, "I'm home."

Her mother came into the dining room with a look of joy, and surprise. The surprise hurt Kagome a bit. She had, after all, promised emphatically that she would be home in time for lunch on this date.

"Kagome," she smiled and embraced her. "I'm so glad. We were hoping you'd be here."

Souta also embraced her, cracking her case of separateness, a tiny bit.

"We have everything we need," he said in his warbling, teenage voice. "I picked out the fish myself. Hope you like it."

Kagome kissed his cheek. "I'm sure I will."

She tried to remember how to behave like a normal person, but once again she had to choke back the tears that always clouded her vision when she saw how tall he had grown. When she was away, he seemed to shrink in her mind's eye; back to the boy he was when she first met Inuyasha.

Her mother and grandfather both looked a little older, and she let herself believe for a moment that this house was the only place where time was real.

After lunch with her family, Kagome changed and left for the diner on the corner, where she had promised to meet her old friends from high school. How she had managed to hold on to these friends over the years, despite being almost constantly absent and unreliable, she could not even guess. She was pretty sure however, that it was more about their resilient stubbornness than anything she had done.

Her body was screaming for sleep. Since the last time she had slept, she had traveled a dozen leagues, faced several demonic enemies, almost killed her best friend's brother (who had almost killed her), traveled back the dozen leagues, spent a restless night in anger and anxiety, and jumped through time again. Then there was the family lunch during which she had to maintain all of the countless fictions with which she had surrounded herself. She was hammered by exhaustion and by the cruel sun.

She looked up from studying her feet on the sidewalk to see her friends waving for her attention from the diner window. When she peered through the window, however, she noticed with a start that she saw the reflection of other people on the street but not her own. Kagome shook her head. She told herself that it was a side effect of her exhaustion.

Her friends had changed and, at least outwardly, Kagome had not. To the eyes of Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi, she still appeared before them in the same bemused and distracted state; still burdened with the same sense of otherness. They chatted about unimportant matters over a meal of cheeseburgers and cokes (Kagome had already eaten, so she only had a milkshake), while their old friend dodged the issues that most people shared with their friends. It was like the old days, sans uniforms.

All three of the girls had decent jobs in the city; Ayumi was an executive assistant, Eri was a nurse, and Yuka was a paralegal. They told Kagome about their mean or cute bosses and their funny or smelly co-workers.

"So, Kagome," Ayumi asked cautiously. "How are things going with you? Are you looking for work?"

Kagome idly moved the straw in and out of her double chocolate shake with chocolate sprinkles and listened to it squeak. Her tone was distant.

"No, not," she answered, not bothering to explain or come up with anything else to say.

After the meal, the little foursome decided to go to the star festival. Kagome hoped that the lavish atmosphere of the celebration would distract her friends from herself. Her friends hoped that the smear of greasy food and the haze of hanging lanterns would mask their discomfort in her presence. But the joys of tanabata were lost on them, because they walked in a numbed, awkward silence. Kagome was too far away to even notice the problem she had become.

When they found themselves in the area where people were pinning wishes to bamboo trees however, Kagome could not resist. She wrote on her tanzaku her most desperate wish, the one she kept in her mental file cabinets under the label "if all else fails". Yuka, always observant and a little sneaky, managed to catch a peek at it. She said nothing and looked away.

They stood around in idle awkwardness for a few minutes, not knowing what to do next but feeling that to leave would somehow be inappropriate. It was Ayumi, naturally, who tried to perk them all up.

"Why don't we go to the fortune tellers?"

Her companions reacted with dampened enthusiasm.

"Aww, come on," Ayumi cajoled them. "It'll be fun. We can ask if our wishes will come true."

Yuka glanced at Kagome to see if she could read an expression, but Kagome's small mouth lifted in a slight smile and her eyes remained inscrutable. Eri pushed her shoulder-length hair out of her eyes and wiped her brow.

"Anything is better than just standing here in this sun," she murmured.

"It's settled then," Ayumi said.

Before Kagome and Yuka had a chance to say anything, they were all making their way to the booths where women draped in ridiculous costumes huddled over ragged cards and sweaty palms. A few people were selling good luck charms and potions for everything from aches and pains, to unrequited love, to profitable business deals.

The area was permeated with a musky, animal-like odor and was surprisingly dark. With each step that dark grew greater. Kagome noticed that this area of the festival was rather remote from the rest of the celebration. A strange fearfulness grew within her, but she could not think of a good reason for it. She told herself to relax.

_This is not the feudal era_, she thought, _there isn't going to be a demon on the other side of that table._

Kagura was not going to swoop down from the clouds. Sesshoumaru would not appear without warning or explanation with that dreadful sword of his.

_Chill out._

But this did not help the feeling recede. Instead, her fear merged with a heavy hatred. Kagome noticed with a new terror that the noise of the festival had died down. She looked around in surprise and saw that people were starting to draw away from her. She thought that they were leaving for home for the night. The darkness was now everywhere and she somehow knewthat the moon and stars were shining, though she could not see them through a strange, orange-lit fog.

She was starting to panic. The earth was giving way beneath her; the same way it did when she jumped into the well.

_Oh no! _She panicked, _what if I cross over right here in front of everyone? Do I even know I need the well? What if I can't control it?_

But then someone grabbed her arm. She turned to find herself face to face with Eri. The usually calm face of the young woman was pale and marked with concern. She regarded Kagome with the eye of asylum warden.

"Kagome! Kagome!" Eri was almost shouting her name. "What in the world is the matter with you?"

Kagome looked around. The fair was bustling around her. Polychromatic lights danced in the warm night breezes. No one seemed to notice her distress except her friends.

_Oh that's even better_, _now I'm just going crazy_.

She caught Yuka's eyes studying her, with an expression of dread and fear.

"I'm sorry," Kagome gave a nervous laugh. "I wasn't thinking, that's all. I…I'm fine."

"Maybe we should take you home," Yuka suggested in a hushed tone.

"No, don't be silly," Kagome raised her hands and smiled. "I'm fine..."

"I don't think so," Yuka's tone indicated that she had already decided. "It's getting late anyway. Come on, we'll walk you home."

The other two girls looked a trifle concerned, and a little disappointed, but they did not say anything. The group of friends left the fair and walked back to Kagome's neighborhood without speaking.

Now it actually was getting dark. The lights of the festival were glittering behind them, in a great show of gaiety that could never reach the girls. Kagome was once again turned in on herself. She was convinced that she was going insane and, in a small way, she welcomed her fate. Maybe they would lock her away in a lovely facility that would be absolutely demon-free. No dog demons or half demons or wind demons or even fox demons. No demon slayers, demon-cursed monks, demon swords or demons locked away in jewels. Some place nice with green Jell-O and fluorescent lights that hummed like angels.

Someone roughly grabbed her by the arm and broke her reverie. In a bemused for, she wondered why Eri was doing that again. She looked up and let out a surprised exclamation. It wasn't Eri, or any of her friends. The face was strange. It took her a moment to realize that an elderly woman wrapped in a shawl, who was staring at her in consternation, had seized her.

_I must have bumped into her, _she thought. Kagome started to mumble an apology, but was interrupted.

"What are you doing here?" the old woman demanded, her eyes angry. She even shook the arm she had taken possession of. "You're not supposed to be here!"

Kagome stared at her captor in wide-eyed imbecility. "What?" She shook her head and started to pull away. "I don't…"

"You're not fooling anybody, leastways not me," the old woman told her in a grating voice. "I _know_ what you are!"

Something in the tone of that statement seemed to shock Kagome sane for a moment. She peered closer at the woman. Then her eyes widened again in amazement when she detected the faint, metallic tingle of a demonic aura.

"Oh god!" She pulled away violently this time, causing the old woman to stumble and fall back on the sidewalk. Kagome's friends cried out in amazement. They had watched the exchange in a stupor, but now they clamored to help the woman to her feet.

"Kagome!" Yuka whirled around. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Kagome's eyes hardened, making Yuka stopped short. Kagome drew herself up and announced in the tone of a drill sergeant: "I have to go home. You should go home too. And stay away from that woman."

Her friends started to protest, but Kagome had already turned her back on them and made her way resolutely up the stone steps to her family's shrine.

For a moment, Yuka stared in amazement after the girl she thought she knew. Then she remembered the old woman and she turned back to the street. But the strange crone was gone. Eri and Ayumi looked around in confusion. They had not seen her depart either.

There was nothing to do but go home.

The three old classmates shared an apartment in the city. It was an arrangement born of both pleasure and convenience. They never discussed it, but they all knew better than to offer that arrangement to Kagome. The girls walked back home, less than half a mile away, and realized once again how wise that decision had been. Their old friend seemed plagued with an unfortunate strangeness, and in secret they were glad that they did not have to live with it on a constant basis. Still, they reflected on another failed outing with the strange shrine-girl and their thoughts were melancholy. They walked along in silence, watching the orange glow from the streetlights dance along beside them on the damp pavement.

Yuka was the first to speak.

"I peeked and I saw Kagome's wish," she confessed in a low whisper, afraid that someone else might hear about her sneakiness. "The one she pinned to the tree."

Eri and Ayumi were not shocked, nor did they protest the invasion of that sacred privacy. Instead, they braced themselves.

"What was it?" It was Ayumi who was brave enough to ask the question.

"To not die alone."

***

[End of Chapter 2]

[Next chapter: Our Boundaries]


	3. Our Boundaries

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter 3: Our Boundaries**

"_Ill armed and half starved, they were still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as theirs?" –Sir Arthur Conan Doyle_

***

Kikyou wandered. In the rootless drifting of her unlife, she forgot to grieve the loss of peaceful dreaming. She forgot feeling cold or warm, joyful or tired, or ever feeling anything but nothing.

It had only been about a day and a half since her most recent encounter with Naraku, and in her relentlessness, Kikyou followed the pull of her fatalistic heart to the northwest. She noticed that the country around her was wide and empty of anything but trees and the small that scurried and slithered.

_Typical_, she thought, _they _always_ let themselves get distracted_.

In Kikyou's mind, the words "always" and "never" were very real.

Kikyou did not become distracted. Nothing could ever hold such influence over her. She had become single-minded in her implacable hatred.

She moved steady north by northwest, with no real traces to follow, but convinced she could not be wrong and believing that even if she was wrong, it would only mean that her goal would take longer. Kikyou had something in common with Sesshoumaru without knowing it. She did not worry about the nature of time.

Her meditative gloom was interrupted by the sudden and close sense of a jewel shard. So near that it buzzed inside her, like a wasp trapped by her skin, it was unmistakably tainted with the foul touch of Naraku.

However, it was not Naraku. She did not detect any trace of his miasma in the air, and the jewel fragment was much too small. She tracked it anyway. The unknown individual moved erratically in the forest, and Kikyou got the distinct impression that he or she was lost and confused. The sensation pulling on her senses became stronger, so strong she could almost smell the aura of the jewel being pulled by the earth's revolution. She walked with greater care and, when she rounded a tree and came into a clearing where the undergrowth gave way to the banks of a small river, she spotted him.

She recognized him as the hapless slave who often accompanied Naraku. She knew that his history was tragic, and that he was connected in some way to Inuyasha, but the details eluded her. His eyes were wide and dazed, but, whereas he had always appeared within a veil of a blank expression, his expression was now frightened and confused. He turned toward Kikyou and regarded her, perhaps trying to place her in his memory. He apparently could not decide whether to flee, or to ask her for help.

Kikyou looked at him for a while. The air around him was slanted, fractured by the prism of death. Yet he was not dead. He was meshed in the nets of death, walking ever on the edge of a half-life, just as she. Kikyou also perceived that the jewel shard, embedded in his back, was his tie both to life and to Naraku.

"Lady," he called to her, his eyes wary. "Can you help me? I am lost."

"Yes," Kikyou answered, looking on him with pity. "You are very lost indeed."

At that moment, as the boy started to move toward her, obviously desperate for the warmth of another soul to tie him to this earth, warmth he could never find in her, Kikyou experienced the delicious sensation of vengeance fulfilled. She welcomed feeling any emotion as violent, a thing so rare in her artificial form. The vengeance was small, but here in this secluded glade it was enough. She removed an arrow from the quiver on her back.

---

Kagura and the boy Kohaku had flown away from the ravine with all haste, leaving Inuyasha and his friends staring after them. Kagura had felt genuine glee at stalling Sesshoumaru and disrupting Naraku's plans, in her own small, mean way. Nevertheless, she worried for the boy. If she brought him back with her, Naraku would likely suspect her of treason no matter what she told him, and what was to stop him from simply killing the kid himself? She fretted while they soared through the air on her feather. She knew that, given her circumstances, the fate of this mortal should be the least of her worries. It should not concern her. But it did.

"Kagura," the boy's voice broke into her thoughts. "Where are we going?"

"Back to the castle, of course," Kagura snapped in impatience, not taking her attention from her own thoughts.

Kohaku looked down at a wide, deep river that was opening into the valley beneath them. They had passed over many mountains north of the ravine and now they were headed for the broad, flat plateau in the heartland where Naraku had fled, cloaked in his miasma.

Kohaku drew in a deep breath.

"No," he said finally. "I think I'd prefer not to."

He put a small hand around hers and gave it a light squeeze. She was so startled that she did not react when he then turned away and leapt from the feather.

Kagura cried out in surprise and fear. They were not flying all that high, but it was high enough. She tried to turn around and dive after him but she knew as she did so that she would never reach him in time. Would the jewel shard continue to sustain him? She had no knowledge of how that arrangement worked. Even as she dove as steep as she dared, she watched Kohaku hit the surface of the river.

"Kohaku!" she cried out. For a second she thought she might not have to lie to Naraku about Kohaku's fate after all. Then she watched in amazement as he resurfaced. He treaded in the middle of the river for a moment or two, enough time to look up at Kagura with a calm expression, and then he swam for shore.

The wind sorceress started to go after him, but then hesitated. The Saimyoushou had still not made their reappearance. Since Kohaku had shown obvious signs of agency, perhaps she would do him a favor by leaving him behind. He was a resourceful boy, she was sure he could manage, probably. In any case, he had a better chance of surviving here in the wilderness, than he had if she took him back. What was more than this, however, was that Kagura felt certain that to let Kohaku go would eventually serve her own interests much more so than hauling him back. If she in any way aided the escape of Kohaku from her despised master, it could at least serve to hurt Naraku, even in a tiny, almost insignificant way.

She told herself that she had only to tell Naraku that that boy ran off and was lost, or that Sesshoumaru had actually killed him this time. She turned her vessel northward and began the debate in her head over which story her master was more likely to believe. So deep was she in these calculations, that she forgot to waste any of her precious energy on envy. She returned to her master that very day. Naraku did not ask her for any information concerning Kohaku, and she did not bring it up.

Kagura's blood was more akin to the sap of a dead tree. The substance itself was masked as warm, mammalian blood, but it did nothing for her. It did not keep her alive, aid her limbs in movement, maintain any kind of chemical balance, or serve to regulate her warmth. All of this was accomplished through the cool and exact machinations of the ruthless half-demon that was her master. Naraku held the heart of Kagura in his hand, literally, and as long as that was so, her desperation exceeded anyone's, even Kikyou's, even if none of Naraku's enemies gave it any thought. Daily, she invested all of her internal energy into hatching one scheme after another aimed at gaining her freedom. Most of these plots fell apart in her mind long before she even considered acting upon them.

It should be understood that Kagura practiced restraint and caution not out of a fear of death, but out of an unconquerable drive to live at all costs. As long as Naraku was in possession of her heart, he was unassailable. She recognized that her only hope was in the demise of her master at someone else's hands. But this was becoming more and more unlikely; if anyone was a coward, it was Naraku. Kagura had come to understand her master in some measure during the years since her "birth" and she saw with unmistakable clarity that his scheming and manipulating from afar were not borne from cleverness and superior maliciousness, as he himself thought, or from a disdainful pride, as many thought—but from an invincible cowardice, a pure poverty of spirit. As a result, he seldom ventured far from his castle, which changed locations often and which contained his greatest saturation of power.

Naraku continued to grow in strength as he renovated his form in an endless task, incorporating new, stronger elements and discarding the weak and undesirable. Despite this, his fearfulness remained unabated. Kagura spent much of her time considering this contradiction. She felt sure that within this mystery lay the key to his undoing. She remained, however, perplexed over the subject. Most confusing was…

"Kagome," she whispered to herself as she settled against a tall oak, fidgeting with her kimonos. There was something about that girl. Naraku feared her more than Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru put together, but why? She was convinced that if only she knew the truth, she could be victorious.

It was a still and heavy afternoon in early July, about two days after she had left Kohaku in the river. It had become very warm and oppressive, raining almost every afternoon, as little squalls came in from the sea and emptied on the soft plains. Kagura's favorite part of the day was in the late afternoon, when everything smelled warm and washed over. She would sneak out of the castle at this time and find a comfortable place to enjoy some time alone. Naraku was no doubt aware of these excursions, but as long as she did not try to go too far, or to engage in anything disobedient, she was probably safe.

The reader should not get the impression that Kagura was a gentle soul, in spite of her love of seclusion and soft meadows. Even at her best, when she endangered herself to hurt her master or to aid Kohaku, she never lost her stern countenance or her harsh voice. It also should not be thought that she rebelled against her wicked master out of any kind of burden of conscience. It was more of a burden of hate. She hated being a servant, a slave, and she despised Naraku's way of doing things. If left to her own devices, she probably would have simply dispatched of the young miko and her loud-mouthed pet long ago.

Yet, there was something about that girl. If they were alone, if she had a chance, would she kill her? Could she kill her?

_Yes_, she told herself, _yes indeed_. She would dispatch of all of them, if no other reason than because they are fools. She would raise her hand and wipe all memory of their suffering from the face of the earth. Then she will live in perfect freedom, as carefree and as careless as the wind.

This was a trail of thought she had tread before, and she knew where it ended. There was always a strange pain somewhere in her body that she could never understand. Wholly ignorant of any pain that was not caused by torture and rage, she would even prod her stomach and caress her ribs, trying to find it.

Kagura sighed again and stared into the clouds that now darkened the far mountains. Once again, without meaning to, her thoughts began yet another old pattern of labor.

Could she somehow aid Naraku's enemies? Would that gain her freedom? How far was she willing to push?

She had probably pushed plenty far enough already, with the Kohaku situation. She thought so hard and so long on these issues that her head began to throb. When she had managed to relax at last and was leaning back against the tree to nap, her eyes flew open. The call of Naraku rang in her head like a great, hollow knock.

"What does he want now?" she grumbled to herself. She looked up and saw the Saimyoushou fluttering above the nearby bushes. He had sent them to make sure she heeded his call. Considering his obvious position, the measure was unnecessary. Yet another indication of his plaguing self-doubt.

Kagura lifted her fan to her nose rather daintily as she entered the stifling atmosphere of Naraku's castle. The air was so putrefied with the rotting flesh of demons and humans that it was like mud in her nostrils and throat; and it thoroughly disgusted her.

Naraku was waiting in his little chamber in the innermost part of the castle. He did not trouble himself with the appearance of taking on lordship and courts. His room was bare except for the one grass mat that was his seat. He himself never carried any possessions, except of course for the large piece of the Shikon jewel shard he often stroked lustily. There was also Kagura's own heart, which he kept inside his own chest, as far as she knew. There was no trust lost between them. Kagura entered the room and kneeled not far from her misery.

"You called?" She tried to sound light-hearted and casual.

Naraku did not even look at her. He appeared to be gazing out of the window in a state of preoccupation.

"I thought perhaps you would like to know," he said in a raspy voice, "that Kohaku is dead."

Kagura froze. If he was telling her this, then he must know that she had had reason to think otherwise. She felt terror rising in her stomach but more than that, she was overcome with a surprising horror and grief. She tried to appear unmoved, but Naraku leered at her in his own pleasure.

"Something the matter, Kagura?" He mocked her. "I know full well that you tried to save him. Did you think that he could just run away from me? Off into the wild blue like some errant cattle? How unbelievably stupid of you."

Kagura squirmed and tried to avoid his stabbing gaze.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to punish you."

She could not help but look up at him, startled.

"Punishing you for being a fool is like punishing a dog for being a dog." He smirked at her, an expression that always made her cringe with dread. "It would be like stepping on an ant at this point, do you not think so?"

Kagura clenched her jaw but could only hang her head in shame. He laughed again, a sound filled with cruel coldness.

"But then again, maybe I did punish you. You obviously developed some sentiment for the boy." He narrowed his eyes at her. "A defect you bear that I discarded into you, no doubt."

Kagura still said nothing.

"You thought he could wander away, that I would just let him go because I did not care? Because I was occupied by more important matters? You thought you were clever enough to have it all figured out? You think this because you imagine I am limited in some way."

Kagura stayed in perfect stillness. She recognized the tone of a growing tempest. Her master rose to his feet and walked over to her. She gave an involuntary flinch.

"But you forget, I am nothing like you. To you, I am unattainable."

Without changing expression, he kicked her in the teeth.

Kagura grabbed her mouth and reeled back, landing on her side. Naraku stood over her, glaring in contempt.

"I can occupy myself in a dozen different ways, in a hundred different places. I only had to have him hunted down!" His face shone with an unholy zeal for a moment, before he collected himself again.

"It was no great task, of course, but know that he suffered Kagura. He suffered greatly. But not near as much as you will, before the end."

Kagura, still on the floor like a pile or rags, tried to stifle a whimper.

Naraku went on. "I do this not even to punish you, but to show you I can. In the end, you will love me for everything that I do." He grabbed her hair and yanked her to her knees. She did not even cry out.

"Now come on," he said with contempt. "I have an errand for you, mutt."

When Naraku disclosed the nature of her next errand, the look in his eyes was cold and cruel. Kagura could not hide the faint spark of a hopeful plan, some desperate idea that shone like a brief flame behind her scarlet eyes. It died however, when she realized she had set herself up.

Naraku sneered at her, and then even laughed. "I know, I know." His voice was spiteful. "You think he might save you. You are not one that gives up easily, Kagura. I'll give you that much."

He still had her by the hair, dragging her to the door, for no other reason than to be brutal.

"It is your pitiful ignorance that traps you," he lectured her. "And your hope has made you blind. You do not see that he cares nothing about you or your fate. You do not see because you do not wish to see."

Kagura, her tongue thick with hatred, remained silent. A catch in the wooden floor, however, caused her to stumble, and she let out a startled, muffled cry, like a low moan. Naraku looked down at her, and his eyes glinted.

Before she even had a chance to get back upright, Kagura had been picked up, as though she weighed nothing, and thrown against the far wall. She slammed into it at such a ferocious speed that the wind was knocked out of her lungs.

It was useless to ask why. It was useless to beg. She would never have done so anyway. Something she had done had provoked him. He was already in that place in his black mind.

_You were made for this._

She was crumpled on the floor again. In her mind, Kagura recognized only the dark of hopelessness. But in her heart, she was driven to get to her feet again.

_Get up. GET UP. At least be standing when he comes at you again. Don't you DARE miss it._

She did not. She was on her feet the next time he hit her. Her back hit the wall again and her bones creaked under the malignant weight of her master. Kagura felt the cold leather of his hands for a moment, but the feeling faded as her flesh recognized its own and forgot, like it always did, to tell her what was really happening.

_Time to leave, _her mind whispered to her. For a brief, victorious moment, she did. Kagura saw a bright, azure sky, through her hair that was whipping in the wind. She was rising up, up, up…

Naraku drew back for a moment. "What's the matter?" he asked in a low, hoarse whisper. "You seem to have lost interest."

_Kagura is not here right now. _

"Oh I see." Naraku sneered again. "Perhaps she bores of the same old thing."

She felt the shift. Flesh pulled away for an instant, particles reallocated. He grabbed her jaw with a strong, but smooth hand.

"This better?"

She looked up at the face of Sesshoumaru.

_No! You're losing it! Don't let him…_

Kagura screamed.

---

Kikyou approached the boy. "Do not be afraid," she said. "I am precisely the one to help you."

She took one of the arrows tipped with Onigumo's grave soil and stuck it quite deliberately in his back.

The boy gasped. For a moment, Kikyou was fearful he would die. She was very careful to dig only deep enough to touch the jewel shard but not remove it. He stiffened, and then went limp and toppled to the ground. Kikyou removed her arrow and bent to study his body with a clinical eye. He was not dead, and she hoped that she had been successful in purifying that shard. It was heavily tainted, but if there was ever a way, that was it.

There was one serious problem however. She could see straight away that she should not leave this boy alone. For one thing, Naraku could return for him and, for another, nothing she tried could wake him. She was forced at last, with some exasperation, to drag him over a dozen meters to an overhanging rock that was near the river. There they stayed for three days.

On the second day, as the sun was setting, Kikyou stood on the edge of the river. On the surface, she may have appeared as serene as the river itself. In truth, she was more than a little irritated and restless. It is quite easy to become sick with boredom when one neither slept nor ate. She had no company either but the perpetual sighs of the Shinidama Chuu and the sleep-rustling of the boy.

The sun was making its hasty descent into the west, pouring gold into the river, when Kikyou's eyes were attracted to a slight movement by the edge of the water. She thought she saw a figure, perhaps that of a woman, walking to her from the shallows. Kikyou tried to screen her eyes from the sunset to make it out, but the apparition was gone. There was no one there at all.

Perhaps he was not of the dead, but the lost boy's sleep was as heavy. Kikyou could not stir him, and she surmised that he must have been suffering from a terrible exhaustion. He slept as though he had not known rest for years on end. Finally, on the third morning, she was gazing at the calm surface of the river when without warning he up.

"Please, will you tell me your name?"

"I am called Kikyou."

"I apologize," he told her. "I don't remember my name."

Kikyou tried to smile with as much warmth as she could manage. "That's all right," she said. "We'll figure it out. Are you ready to go?"

That was how the boy who was not alive and the woman who died a long time ago came to be traveling companions.

A second serious problem then presented itself. Kikyou had intended on tracking Naraku, but only a moment's thought convinced her that this boy should not be brought anywhere near the malicious demon. She could not be certain that she had removed every trace of Naraku from the jewel shard but, even if she had succeeded in freeing the boy, it was probable that for the despicable creature to reestablish the bond would be no difficult task.

Under normal circumstances, the best course of action would be to take the boy to the nearest village and leave him there, perhaps with the local priest. Kikyou dismissed that idea without much debate. She could tell by his clothing that the boy was taijiya, and she had been, in life, well acquainted with a village of demon exterminators that lay near Edo—or at least it used to. She decided that it would be best to go there. After they managed something to eat (for the boy, of course), they turned their faces toward the rising sun.

The journey would take about six days. It was longer than normal for Kikyou because they had to stop often to allow the boy to eat and sleep. Furthermore, when she was immersed in her conversations with the Shinidama Chuu or in mediation, he had an alarming habit of wandering off and she would have to track him by following the lure of the jewel shard. He was always happy to see her and did not seem to understand why she appeared visibly irritated, if he noticed at all.

However, not every distraction could be blamed on the boy.

On the seventh day after the encounter with Naraku (and their third day together), they were required to cross another river. They were lucky that this one was as placid as the last one, and bridged in many places by broad, flat stones that, while a little slippery, where convenient. Kikyou decided to make camp on the east bank for the night.

Once again, as the setting sun colored the water, a movement attracted Kikyou's eyes. She looked and saw a woman standing in the shallows of the river. Considering the circumstances, she concluded that the woman was not likely human. With caution, Kikyou edged closer to the river. Her toes lapped by shallow waves, she was close enough to know that here was no sign of a demon. Puzzled, she addressed the apparition.

"Who are you? Why are you following me?"

The figure only looked at her with intent, black eyes. The 'woman' was slender as a willow, but not very tall. She had strange, rather foreign features, with hair that was so pale in color it could almost be called white, except that the strands ended in brown leaves and bare twigs. At first, Kikyou thought she might have stumbled across some spirit of the forest, but several other features were troubling. A shape she took to be a wheel was painted on the person's forehead in the deepest black, a sharp distinction from her skin that appeared as translucent and as cold as frost. She had a bundle of what appeared to be sticks of beeswax tied to her belt, and she clutched white lilies at her side.

Fearful, Kikyou took a timid step back, but she soon realized that she had moved toward the figure at an alarming speed. She had not taken a single step in that direction, but instead had _been moved_, as though the time and space between them did not exist. When mere inches were between them, Kikyou looked into the creatures eyes and saw not her own reflection, but the patience of a glacier and the black of the blackest ocean. Kikyou knew then, as her breath was stolen away, that she was face to face with Death.

"Why?" she managed to gasp. "Why now?"

The figure leaned closer to her, and peered into her eyes, and then Kikyou was amazed to see a flicker of confusion. Death leaned yet closer and looked not at her but through her, and Kikyou felt her artificial body being pierced through as if on a lance. Then the spirit seemed to realize something, and she leaned back. Kikyou stood frozen as Death regarded her.

"You are not the one."

Kikyou shuddered to hear the awful vastness and emptiness of that voice. Had she not heard it before? If she had, she did not remember.

"Indeed," the apparition continued, "you are already mine."

For the first time since her reformulation some years before, the terrible weight of her meager existence landed on Kikyou shoulders. She fell to her knees and hung her head to weep in misery. She wept with aching longing for that otherside. The spirit continued to regard her without expression.

"You are not the one," she continued. "I will pass you by for now, but don't be confused. One day I'll be coming for you."

There followed then a rushing sound, made of the ocean's churning and the wind in tall pines, and Kikyou felt a tug on her collected souls. She shivered and shuddered as most of them left her body with the pull of that terrible force, following that relentless and irresistible spirit into the other side of the mysteries.

Debilitated by the depletion of her souls and by a sudden and unexpected despair, Kikyou lifted her feeble head to check on the boy. He was still asleep; it seemed that Death had not come for him. In a daze, Kikyou wondered who she might have come for, and who was meant by "the one", before she collapsed on the bank in a heap. Kikyou was sure she heard someone screaming her name, somewhere very far away. It left a frozen echo inside of her before she lost consciousness.

***

[End of Chapter 3]

[Next chapter: Our Notices]


	4. Our Notices

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter 4: Our Notices**

_"It's nothing," returned Mrs. Chick. "It's merely change of weather. We must expect change." –Charles Dickens_

***

Gliding on vents and columns of warm summer air, high above the Shikoku range, the falcon saw below what appeared to him a strange procession of pilgrims. He saw a tall demon heading the procession.

_Powerful by the looks of it, _he thought to himself.

This demon lord was flanked by a young girl (_human, or I'm a cat!) _and by what he could only guess to be some kind of large toad. He wondered what could bring about such a strange fellowship, and why they wandered up into the foothills. He was curious, but also hungry, so he never found out any more about it.

Far below, using the two-headed staff to aid him in climbing the slopes (he was growing older than he would ever admit), Jaken wondered why his lord bothered with these occasional surveys of his lands. It seemed to him that forests and mountains could maintain themselves passably well with little or no supervision. When he first came to live at the Hyouden, he thought it was hubris: Sesshoumaru's way of reminding himself of his own wealth and might. Since then, however, Jaken had remade his opinion. He now suspected that Sesshoumaru did not like to stay in one place for too long. The simple truth was that the surveys were an excuse to travel. But Jaken did not dare to inquire about his lord's motives, and least of all to propose his own theories aloud.

There were numerous locations about the outskirts of Sesshoumaru's lands where others had taken up residence. Most paid tribute, though Jaken was never very sure of the nature of it, and Sesshoumaru did not seem to care. Most were demon. Most, but not all.

Those who had never seen Sesshoumaru at home would doubtless have been unable to believe that he allowed humans to dwell on his lands. These miniscule villages lived off rice and fishing and were inhabited by persons seeking, above all else, peaceful isolation. They therefore did not bother Sesshoumaru, and he in turn took small notice of them. Their only relation to him was an ancient agreement that they would send messages to his palace if the lands were under serious threat. It had worked out quite well for the humans for generations, because no demon tribe of any sort would dare attack Sesshoumaru's lands. For Sesshoumaru's part, he never gave the humans any thought, being that he did in fact disregard their worth.

Their last stop on this journey was a cave in the low slopes of the mountains that opened southeast. Sesshoumaru bid Jaken and Rin to wait outside.

Inside were the dwellings of dark spider demons, who had no love of sunlight. They spun a glittering palace for themselves deep in the bowels of the earth in an interminable task that had no focus. Their hunger for living blood, mortal or not, was never satisfied, but they dared not assail the Lord of the West, in part because his presence in these lands was a protection, in part because to do so would mean their immediate destruction. Sesshoumaru entered without leave and without caution.

But there was no one to receive him. Only tattered ghosts of old and abandoned silk remained clinging to the cave walls. Even the stench of the spider demon was faint. Sesshoumaru stood in the heavy emptiness and absently brushed aside a finger of cobweb that grazed his cheek.

It was not like the spider demons to disappear. Because they feared and despised the "hate-fire", as they called the sun, they seldom ventured far from the mouth of their caves, and then only when they were famished. It was not like them to involve themselves in the affairs of other demons.

Under normal circumstances, it was not like Sesshoumaru to become involved in the affairs of other demons. However, he could not ignore the wind that carried loud, brassy notes of warning that a great change, some new threat, was hiding on the edge of his awareness, building momentum.

To Rin and Jaken the survey seemed uneventful. As far as Jaken could tell, the lands seemed more or less in order with the seasons. Hunters kept on hunting, flowers kept on flowering, lovers kept on loving, trees kept on…treeing.

Neither Jaken nor Rin were a fraction as perceptive as Sesshoumaru, however. He knew long before they turned to go home that something was wrong. The land was much too quiet. The brutish air of summer was immobile, like a retracted coil, waiting to unleash its tension in one direction or another. There was a scent of dreadful anticipation so heavy that Sesshoumaru could not believe that those less in strength than himself were not drowning in it.

As far as he knew, the settlements and dwellings that spotted his lands existed more or less in perfect safety. Yet there was about them a feeling of fear and dread. He noticed the human villages in particular had thinner populations. He never went near them but he could feel the villagers watching him from afar with fearful suspicion, even hatred.

They returned to the Hyouden after a little more than two days of travel. Rin skipped ahead; always happy to see her home whether she had been gone for two days or two months. She came to an abrupt stop.

Sesshoumaru reached her and saw that she was staring at the main door. On it, there was a small scroll of paper tied to the iron knocker with a length of glossy black horsehair.

Rin took it down, as it was much too high for Jaken.

"It has writing on it." She turned the paper around in her hand as if that would make it easier to understand. Sesshoumaru remembered that she had never learned to read.

"Give me that!" Jaken snatched it away. He cleared his throat.

"_To the great Lord Sesshoumaru, mighty Prince of the West, King of the Hyouden, our most honored and esteemed benefactor."_

There was no doubt whom had sent the message. Only the Karauma, the horse demons who lived in the foothills of the southern mountains and paid allegiance to Sesshoumaru and all his kin, would ever write with such formality.

"_As part of our careful obedience to the tradition laid down by our forefathers, who long ago swore allegiance to your forefathers, we have sent this message to inform you of important matters. Thus let all in the land observe the tireless compliance of the Karauma to all their treaties and obligations so that they may in turn do the same."_

Sesshoumaru sighed in spite of himself.

"_Our most revered leader, Ishida the Patient, has been felled by enemies to the north. The Youshun have become unaccountably aggressive and have taken much of the lands on our northern border, which were set aside for our use and our guardianship by your ancestor. Ishida's widow, Shinme the Wise, has sent this message in hopes that you, in your judiciousness and unrivaled ability, can avert further bloodshed. Furthermore, to show our duty to you, she has also offered an important message, meant for you, that only she can give:_

_Worry not my daughters,  
__Worry not my sons.  
__We will all go bare and swim in the air,  
__When all is said and done."_

Sesshoumaru snorted. "What nonsense."

"Would you like me to send a reply, my lord?"

"Don't be absurd. Those who dwell in these lands are fortunate enough that they are allowed to do so. The integrity of their imagined borders is this own problem."

"If I might be so bold, my lord," Jaken bowed so low that his small forehead grazed the grass.

Sesshoumaru stood silent.

"These are your lands. If you allow others to show their strength here, it might be perceived as weakness on your part by others."

"What others perceive does not concern me."

"Ah yes, of course my lord, however, if I might suggest—

"No, you may not," Sesshoumaru cut him off. "I am well aware of your friendship with Shinme, Jaken. If you feel the need to protect her, you have leave to depart."

"Ah!" Jaken hopped up and down, waving his arms. "No, no, no, my lord. I could never dream of abandoning you!"

But Sesshoumaru was already entering the house. Rin stood beside Jaken, poking him in the ribs.

"It's not because you're scared, is it Master Jaken?" she teased him.

"Don't be so insolent, silly girl!" He smacked her on the bottom with his staff. "Get in the house! Make yourself useful for once and prepare something to eat!"

In truth, Sesshoumaru did not feel as indifferent as he made it seem. Shinme's warning sent a shudder through him and left him cold, even while his brain tried to process it the same way it had always processed everything. He told himself he had always ignored such things. It was his privilege to ignore such things. Why should now be any different?

The prince thought that perhaps if he further investigated the disappearance of the spider demons, he could shirk any lingering uncertainty. Their unexplained disappearance was doubtless the cause of this annoying sense for foreboding. He needed to discover how they had managed to move across his lands in large numbers without being detected and what had driven them to do so. Once this small matter was clarified, no doubt it would be a simple matter to shrug off the air stifled with dread, the unexplained sense of alarm, and the enigmatic notice letter.

_Like everything else_, he thought, _just the same as it ever was._

Sesshoumaru decided to continue on his own, unhindered. He left his charges standing on the north wall, Rin's long kimono sleeve fluttering in the wind as she waved goodbye. He cut a steady path, low across the sky and north by northwest, until he came again to the slopes of the Shikoku, where he found a poor, disheveled hut nestled against a tiny creek in a gully. He noted with satisfaction the presence of a thin, grey tendril of smoke rising from a hole in the center of the roof. He landed with a light step and entered without announcement.

Tamotsu, Sesshoumaru's first cousin, was a dog demon of honorable lineage but questionable reputation. This tiny hovel was Tamotsu's home, in the strictest sense of the word. It stood dark and empty except on the rare occasions he used it as a place for rest or for diversions of a various and often sordid nature.

He was also the closest living relative to the Lord of the West.

Except Inuyasha, of course. But should you ever overhear Sesshoumaru declare Tamotsu as his closest relative, it would be best not to argue.

Today he was alone, sitting cross-legged on the bare, dirt floor in front of his puny fire. His robes, which were dirty and patched, hung half open, and were secured by a length of rope tied in a lazy knot on his hip that also held a short sword, without a scabbard and with a nicked and notched blade. His right foot, bare and filthy, tapped the ground while he waited for a roasting fish. When Sesshoumaru entered, he did not look up.

"Fish?" He offered his cousin an unsavory looking charred trout, crammed on a stick.

Sesshoumaru gave him, and the offered "food", a look that spoke volumes.

"Suit yourself," he shrugged, and set to tearing off bits of fish with shiny, white teeth.

"So," he began, mouth still full. "What brings you here?"

Sesshoumaru answered without hesitation.

"I saw the smoke. I was curious and I came to see if someone was here or if this pestilential piss hole of yours had spontaneously caught fire."

"You're in fine form today," his cousin congratulated him. "Good weather for flying?"

"Were you coming with me? Or did you just need an audience for your disgusting habits and clever remarks?"

Tamotsu's eyes went wide with innocence. "You came to me!" he protested.

Sesshoumaru turned his back on him.

Not much later, they stood outside the abandoned cave of the spider demon.

"It is strange," Tamotsu agreed, scanning the area with narrow, golden eyes. "These creatures, if I remember, hate the sun. They do not wander. That is why your father never troubled himself about their presence."

Sesshoumaru remained silent.

Tamotsu adjusted the hilt of his sword as he sat with an unceremonious flop on the dusty ground.

"I do not understand why you are troubling yourself over this. They were always rather unpleasant creatures. Good riddance."

"Perhaps." Sesshoumaru murmured. Hot air moved his silver hair as he gazed out on the plains north of the Hyouden. The random thought occurred to him that the heat of the season had so far been exceptionally oppressive and implacable.

"But it bothers me still. I would feel better if I knew what could have drawn them from my lands, and how they moved unnoticed. I have never been one to doubt my instincts."

Tamotsu chuckled. "True." He stood up again and turned toward his cousin. "So I'm off then. I will find what I can and return as soon as I can. You go in the opposite direction."

He did not wait for an answer, but turned, lifted a foot, and was gone in the direction of the east in an instant.

Sesshoumaru's trek into the western most edges of his lands yielded nothing. Always thorough however, he took his time covering the forests, streams, and even the unlikely and forbidding coasts. He stopped when he came to the deep and dark waters of the bay. No matter what contrivance or devilry was driving them, it was unthinkable that the spider demons would attempt such a crossing. Just to cover all possibilities, he made a slight turn to the north, right to the southern edges of the Karauma lands, but there was not so much as a hint of the spider demons' passage. Sesshoumaru was confident that the horse demons would have prevented the trespassing of such loathsome creatures, or, at the very least, reported it to him.

Sesshoumaru was in no particular hurry as he made his way back to the cave. He paid scant attention to the scenery, his thoughts absorbed in the ominous message of Shinme. Although the Karauma were not powerful demons in any sense, he was well aware of his family's history with the predictions of their queen. He imagined what his father would say.

When he returned to the spot where he had parted with Tamotsu the previous day, he did not find his cousin there. He took that as an optimistic sign that the skillful tracker had discovered a helpful lead to the east.

It was the grinding of rock against rock that warned him. It was not loud at first, but Sesshoumaru was already floating above the ground when the path beneath him crumbled. The path had winded down from the cave along the edge of a cliff that faced the northwest. That edge now disintegrated into the ravine below. As the earth trembled and heaved for only a few moments, the smell of its distress was sickening. He saw a great cloud of dust and debris rising hundreds of feet in the air above the Hakusan Mountains many, many miles away.

When the disturbance passed, Sesshoumaru resettled on the earth and seated himself against the trunk of a scrawny tree that grew on the dusty ledge. He tried to remember the last such disturbance in this area, but could only touch the feathered edge of a dim memory.

"Well, that was dramatic."

Tamotsu had arrived amid the tumult and was standing on what was the new edge of the cliff.

Sesshoumaru lifted his eyes again to the north, the cloud of debris was still settling. What sort of power could have such an impact? He was about to suggest to his cousin that they investigate the disturbance, when the sky broke open all at once and began to pour heavy rain. It was almost shocking, because they had not even noticed the gathering of a storm. It was as if someone had brushed clouds of thunder and deluge in a few large strokes across the summer sky.

Tamotsu shook his matted hair and blinked at the clouds. "Well, at least I'll get a bath."

"The gods have smiled on us all."

But that was not the last surprise. The rain was not pure but tainted with an unpleasant toxin and a faint smell that was like burning wood and putrid mud and flesh.

Tamotsu wrinkled his nose. "What _is _that stench?"

_One thing at a time_, Sesshoumaru told himself.

"Did you find anything?"

"Oh! Yes, actually." Tamotsu answered. "The spider demons definitely went northeast. They passed through the human-occupied lands. Large numbers of them over the past few months. Took lots of humans as they went too, as snacks I suppose."

That explained the unease of the human settlements, and the sparseness of their populations.

"So many demons could move without being detected?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"Well, the humans certainly weren't going to detect anything, not until it was right on top of them. And get this: they say that you were driving them."

"So they are delusional in addition to being useless."

"Crazy or not, that's what is being spread around. Some even say they saw you first hand, with a terrifying sword, whips of flame, trailing clouds of destruction and ruin—all that."

That explained why no human had sent word to him to raise any alarm. Not that he would have done anything about it, of course. Probably.

They meant to travel northeast then, to track both the spider demons and the strange destruction they had just witnessed (Sesshoumaru wondered if they were in fact related). This direction took them close to the Hyouden again, and Sesshoumaru came to a sudden halt.

Tamotsu stopped when he realized Sesshoumaru had fallen behind. "What is it?" he called.

It was faint now, almost washed away by the tainted rain. But a smell still seemed to be coming from the house, the same smell that came with the rain. He looked down.

The house appeared to be in perfect order. Then he noticed that the front door was ajar, only a small crack. That was not usual. Rin was often forgetful about such things.

_Still…_

Sesshoumaru changed course and came to his doorway. He gave it a careful push.

No one was in the entryway, but it was in violent disarray. A table had been overturned, and new scorches and cinders marked the left sidewall.

_What had happened?_

---

Higurashi was changing. Standing in the doorway of the old well house had so far offered her little in the way of comfort. In reality, Kagome had not been gone long at all and her mother should have been used to her absences by now. However, Higurashi was not inclined to be reasonable. She had been tormented with dreams since she had last seen her daughter, terrible visions of fire, smoke and ruin. Once the notion of an unknown calamity had entered her head, she could not free herself from it.

A songbird began a sudden, loud tirade from a branch above the courtyard, breaking into her thoughts like a pebble dropping into still waters. It lasted only a moment and then it was gone, and Higurashi returned to the darkness of her fears and her dread. She stood fumbling with a large, blue button that had fallen from Kagome's sweater and that she had found among the uneven stones.

The hours passed like falling snow and Higurashi's anxiety grew. She took great care to hide it, in particular from Souta. She went from day to day, rehearsing the normal measures of her life with an increasing distance and numbness.

By this time, she had long accepted that she must indeed have been mad to have gone along with this whole affair. She remembered her previous reasoning, that Kagome's destiny was immutable, with a sense of self-reproach and ridicule.

But then, Kagome was not fifteen anymore.

_What's done is done._

She sighed, and with a movement that betrayed frustration and self-disdain, she abandoned the silly, orphaned button on the ground and walked into the house.

Higurashi was changing. She could feel something growing, moving inside her like a terrible and enormous parasite, ricocheting around inside her rib cage. She could feel it gnawing at the edges of her joints. She could smell it in her head. She did not fully comprehend the nature of this internal movement until one day, almost four weeks after Kagome had returned through the well; she was peeling potatoes while seated on a low, wooden bench in the courtyard. Suddenly there appeared in the courtyard two large figures, one a man, the other some kind of dog.

The man was tall, the tallest she had ever seen. His hair was a kind of white, but cast in strange hues like warm silver, and his eyes were amber colored and like those of an animal, though calm and wise. The dog was no ordinary dog, but a great hound, with legs as long as Souta's and flanks like those of a horse. It had teeth like the points of curved daggers and eyes like black pearls. The beast's fur was white and gray and grew in great shaggy tufts that covered its body thickly and moved in the wind like willows.

To her credit, she wasted no thought on calling for help, or running away. She knewthat the figures before her did not occupy any true space. As the two specters moved toward her she thought that they did not touch the ground, and when they were close enough she saw that the movements of the immense canine mirrored those of the man, like a shadow. Then Higurashi understood that the man and the dog were one. At random, she wondered if understanding this would in some way cause one to melt into the other, but it did not.

Higurashi said nothing, but rose with simple grace and bowed her head. The man responded to this with a slight bow, and the hound sat back on its haunches, letting its tongue roll out in a sort of laugh.

"Do you always greet apparitions so courteously?" the man asked of her, looking amused.

"I have not had the pleasure, my lord," Higurashi tone was placid, even indifferent, and she returned to her potatoes. "To what do I owe this one?"

"I have come to offer you some small comfort," he answered, not moving, "for I know in this hour your need is great."

Higurashi said nothing. Once her sense of wonder subsided, she felt icy and distant, as though this stranger was the cause of her misery.

_As though I was someone else._

"It is not needful that you speak at this time," he said, trying to sound soothing. Higurashi got the impression that he had not been very good at it in life. He paused, regarded her with a calm air that wrapped her in an atmosphere of anxiety. At last, he spoke again.

"It is needful that you know that _mine_ will always see to the safety and well being of _yours_."

Higurashi lost her restraint as his implications slammed into her. As soon as he uttered this last sentence, she leapt to her feet, a desperate question on her lips and spilling the potatoes on the ground.

But he and the hound were gone. She could see that they had left no footprints in dusty courtyard.

Thereafter Higurashi knew no peace. It seemed that this one vision had given all her dreams permission to walk by daylight; and she went about the entire next day dreaming on her feet. The following dusk found her standing lost in the center of her own kitchen where she thought she saw the Hero and his Hound sitting at the table feasting and singing war songs.

Higurashi was not one to give in to insensibility and she strove with an enormous effort to regain her lucidity and practical nature. She drank a bitter cup of tea with crushed oyster shell, in an effort to bring on sleep. When this did not avail her, she attempted to count the tolls of the clock, the notes in a waltz, or a certain kind of flower in the patch behind the shrine. She was convinced her illness was brought upon her by stress, and she undertook every device she could wring from her mind to ease her impossible anxiety.

Like most people, when nothing else would work for Higurashi, she fell to prayer. She prayed with such pathetic fervor that she wept in prostration. Hounded by ghosts throughout her house and tormented by the notion that the past was unassailable and all the world was dying—dying _backwards—_ she prayed that some contrivance would soon reunite her with her daughter.

At noon of the fourteenth of August, a sudden, squawky sound startled her, and she dropped a porcelain cup that shattered when it hit the floor. It was the doorbell that had succeeded in re-introducing reality.

***

[End of Chapter 4]

[Next chapter: Our Frailty]


	5. Our Frailty

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter 5: Our Frailty**

"_I've always been the __coward; I never know what's good for me._

_Here I go, don't let me go,_

_Hold me down!" – Kate Bush_

***

A woman who in all her life had never been heard to sing, as hard and fragile as her namesake, Sango was alone.

She was introverted by nature, and she devoted herself with decided care to her memories. She had become convinced long ago that if she forgot one day of her youth spent with Kohaku or one hair on her father's head, she would lose them forever. Then Naraku would be in a position to defeat her over and over again.

Therefore, she remembered with crystal clarity another night long ago when Naraku had used Kohaku to get to Kagome. She remembered how Kohaku attacked Kagome in the woods, and how Inuyasha had stopped Sango from killing her own brother, before none other than Kagura came to take him away.

There were a few differences this time, to be sure. In the first place, the night seemed to merge past events, where Kohaku had attacked Kagome on one and almost been killed by Sesshoumaru on another. Also, this time, instead of stopping her from doing it, Inuyasha had been the one more likely to kill her luckless brother. This change was not lost on Sango, and she interpreted it as a sign that Inuyasha, who was so strong, was nonetheless wearing down under the endless cycles. She was being hammered away by the implacable cruelty of that same machine. As she watched the half-demon pacing near Kaede's hut, throwing hateful glances at the rising sun, she knew she would never have been able to blame him. A secret part of her admitted she might have been grateful.

At any rate, it all ended the same. The inscrutable demoness flew off with her brother, and she was no closer to ending Naraku's assault on her memories than she had been on that dark night in the forest long ago.

Sango was alone. Alone in her grief, alone in her strength, alone in her passive acknowledgement of death. No amount of loyalty or devotion or firm friendship could undo her pact with solitude.

She listened to Inuyasha and Kagome screech at each other without hearing. She did not try to intervene or to offer counsel in these little spats anymore. There was enough done these days in the repetitive motion of mindless ants. She was too engrossed in dreams from the previous night anyway, dreams she remembered with unsettling clarity. The night had been hot and restless, and she had gone to bed annoyed with Miroku and burdened in the same old ways.

In her dream they were walking on a dry and dusty road. The air was bright and bone dry. It was all very ordinary and unremarkable. She could hear Shippou chattering to Kagome, and Miroku was walking beside Sango, talking to her in a low voice, but she did not remember what was said.

There was an approaching sound, a hard staccato running to meet them. Everyone turned to see horse standing in the road. He was a great stallion, the most beautiful Sango had ever seen. He nodded his impressive head, throwing his mane in the bright sky. There was a sense of wariness behind her and she knew her friends were afraid.

_Yes, _she thought nonsensically_, he could kick, or bite._

But Sango was not afraid, she was enthralled. She lifted her hand to him.

"Sango…" Miroku's tone was cautionary, but more than that he was afraid, not of the horse, but of something else. She did not acknowledge it in the dream, but somehow understood it anyway, and she chose to ignore it.

_No, no time to tell him now._

_I will be a demon slayer. I will be strongest. I will be fiercest. I will travel endlessly. I will laugh at this, cry at that and then pray, and then sleep. I will hit Miroku. I will love and never think to stop. I will embrace no one. I will hate, fear, dread, and regret and I will choke on all of it._

She was with these people because she had always been.

Sango was alone.

Now she stood again at the beginning of another dry and dusty road. After the insufferable drone of their monotonous motions bothered them enough, the little "family" got on their way. They decided to retrace their steps to the ravine and then attempt to find clues or leads from there. Kaede gathered what supplies she could spare and gave them to Sango, since Kagome's bag was full of the mysterious objects she always brought from her own era.

Kaede was sad that they were leaving. The truth was her life was so much more boring when they were gone. But what saddened her most was to see their youth wither, with nothing to show for it, when all hope of peace had gone beyond recall or desire. She wanted to tell them that Naraku's death would probably not solve all of their problems and that they should not let his nature ruin them. But in the end all she could say was: "Farewell. Be careful."

_Be careful, Kagome._

---

Kaede had not been the first to say this to Kagome on this same day. Before Kagome returned to the feudal era that morning, and before her mother sank into a crisis of inflexible apprehension, Kagome had stood before the door to the well shrine with her mother, both of them trying to speak words through the words they could not speak.

"I just don't think you should have to keep doing this."

Not once had Kagome's mother ever attempted to dissuade her from going through the well, until then. She stood before her daughter, looking so much older than she had five minutes before, and she wrung her hands, trying not to appear emotional.

Kagome's heart sank into a deep, black pool of thick water.

"This other place, why must you go?" her mother questioned her. "What do you owe them that live there? Why must you give everything away?"

Kagome tried to comfort her, even though she had no answers.

"Oh mom," she even laughed a little. "I don't think I'm giving away everything."

"Then tell me, what have you saved? What have you gained?"

Kagome could say nothing, so she stared at her mother's shoes.

"I just don't think," her mother murmured. "I just don't think it's fair. That's all."

"Please, Mama," Kagome pleaded. "Don't."

They heard the faint ringing of the telephone in the house. Grandpa and Souta were away at the market, but both Higurashis chose to ignore it anyway.

"Is it…" Higurashi was afraid to ask the question she had ignored for years. She swallowed hard. "Is it terribly dangerous? Is it hard for you?"

Kagome felt the ugly weight of a lie on her tongue.

"It's really not bad at all," she said cheerfully. "I mean, why do you think I keep going back? It's a real fairy tale."

Kagome started to turn away. She was fearful that her mother would reach out and restrain her. She almost seemed to, for a moment. Then Kagome heard her sigh, and then tell her in a low voice:

"Please, be careful Kagome."

Kagome placed a hand on the edge of the well and made ready to jump into it. She turned, and said over her shoulder, "I never meant to cause you pain." Then she was gone.

It was a long, long time, before Higurashi saw her daughter again.

_A fairy tale, _she had said. This phrase turned in Higurashi's mind on a reel and was incorporated in phantom whispers and sighs that would haunt her for weeks to come.

---

"No one's picking up." Yuka returned the phone to its cradle.

"Maybe we could just go over there," Eri suggested. She was sitting in an overstuffed chair, absently petting an orange-stripped cat curled and purring on her lap. "It's not far."

"I don't know," Ayumi disagreed. She pulled her eyes away from the sharp blue sky outside the window. "I don't think we should just show up like that."

Yuka, on the other hand, was not in the mood for traditional pleasantries.

"We're going," she said shortly. She grabbed an umbrella and crossed the threshold before the other girls could argue. Eri and Ayumi scrambled to cram their feet into their shoes and lock the door before catching up with her.

"I still don't think this is a good idea," Ayumi said again, casting her eyes upwards again at the stabbing sun of the summer afternoon.

Yuka said nothing but looked straight ahead, and Eri only gave a slight sort of shrug. Ayumi knew it was useless. This adventure was the final crash of a wave that had been swelling since Kagome left them so abruptly the previous evening. All through the night, Yuka had sat still as death on their dilapidated sofa, staring at the news channel that reran the same stories over and over. Eri and Ayumi would have been able to sleep without trouble, if not for Yuka's anxiety that thudded on all the walls with relentless fervor. They got up at two in the morning and made three ice cream sundaes. Yuka let most of hers melt, unable to reach it through the dread that encased her down to her knuckles.

Eri and Ayumi tried to comfort her. They said that Kagome's problems did not have to be their own problems. She had always been this way, would probably always be this way, and they were better off not worrying about it. Yuka, however, made it clear that she believed Kagome was in some obscure but serious danger.

"But she's always acted this way," Eri argued. "If she's been in trouble all this time…" she spread her hands and left it hanging.

"I know, I know," Yuka lowered her head and raked her hands through her hair. Then she sighed. "I just…I just can't explain it. I have a terrible feeling. As soon as the hour is decent, I'm going to try calling her."

"What will that accomplish?" Eri asked her.

"I don't know. But I have to do something."

And so here they were now, approaching the shrine itself. Ayumi's sense of unnamed fear doubled as soon as Yuka's foot landed on the first step and, perforce, she checked the sky again.

"I'm sorry girls," Higurashi had been surprised to see them when she opened the door. Yuka thought the gentle woman looked tired and distracted. "Kagome isn't here."

---

"Lord Sesshoumaru is not here," Jaken's tone carried all the weight of contempt he could muster. He hoped it covered his fear. In his lord's absence he was no match for this visitor, should she decide to cause trouble.

"Well?" she demanded. "Where is he?"

"That is no business of yours," Jaken scorned. "Slave of Naraku!"

"How dare you, you little—" Kagura choked on her own rage. The image of the little toad split in two danced before her mind's eye for a moment, but she realized at the last minute that it would probably not increase her chances of allying herself to the fearsome prince of the West. Still, there was no reason that the puny creature had to _like_ her.

"My, my," she purred. "He's gone and left you all alone then, has he?"

Grasping her fan, she made a slight, suggestive movement with her wrist. Jaken continued to glare at her, but he took an involuntary step back. She grinned wide enough to expose her pearly teeth, then she lowered her weapon.

"Actually," she said, "I didn't come here for a fight. I came to talk terms of a treaty, on behalf of my master. But I was not told to treat with you."

"And it would not serve your purpose either way!" Jaken cried. "My master would not ever associate himself with the likes of Naraku, cursed and deceitful, and altogether worthless. I am amazed that he would even dare entertain the notion."

Kagura shrugged, seeming indifferent. But Jaken narrowed his eyes. He knew something about "lackeys" after all, though he would never use that word. He thought of a way to get back at her for her insolence.

"I don't believe he ever did entertain the notion," he declared.

Kagura narrowed her eyes at him.

"He's not that stupid. He probably just sent you here to get you out from underfoot for a while. Probably doing something he doesn't want you to know about. Doesn't trust you, eh?" He scoffed. "No surprise."

Kagura glared at him. "Aren't you the clever one?" Her tone was acidic. "But you see, I am not so stupid either. I came here with my own agenda."

"Obviously," Jaken sneered at her. "But you'll have no luck there either. Sesshoumaru would not saddle himself with someone else's garbage."

This time, Kagura moved too fast for him to flinch, and her sudden burst of angry wind sent him flying into the far wall, knocking the breath out of his lungs. He knew then that he had pushed her too far. He started to scream for help, but then he realized that there was no one to help him. The last thing he wanted was to bring Rin running to the scene. He reached for his staff, but the wind sorceress was already there, knocking it out of his reach. She was inside the house now. Kagura, a servant of his master's detested enemy, was in the Hyouden.

Kagura stood over him, her arm ready to wield the fan in one last blow and slice him in half. She had not come here for this, and she knew it was the last thing she should do, but the little toad had said all the wrong things at the wrong time and the terrible ocean of her anger was out of control. She needed the release of it. It would be so satisfying. It would be _so good._

"What's happening, Master Jaken?"

Kagura whirled to face the doorway. It was the woman-child Rin. She had grown a great deal since the last time Kagura had seen her. The demoness was made even angrier by this evidence of her long servitude.

Why should this girl, this _stupid __mortal girl_, be so damned lucky? Why should she have everything? Everything!

Jaken, still on the floor, stared up at her in horror. He watched the hatred ride over her face like a wave and, all it once, he understood its meaning.

"NO!" he screamed. "Rin! Run!"

Rin's face blanched when she recognized Kagura and, before she even heard Jaken's shout, she turned and bolted back up the stairs like a rabbit. Kagura leapt after her, but Jaken had taken advantage of her distraction and had managed to reach his staff. Kagura found her path blocked by a sudden wall of flames so intense that her hair was blown back by the waves of heat.

"Kagura!" Jaken shouted. "Don't you _dare_!"

Kagura whirled on him in amazement.

"There'll be no hope for you if you don't stop. If you hurt that girl you will surely perish!"

Kagura froze. That someone such as Jaken could say such a thing to her—_there'll be no hope for you—_brought out the truth of her miserable existence with a clean clarity, like iron bells ringing in the winter. The flames had vanished, but she was still standing as still as death in the entry of the Hyouden. The puny victories of her life so far flickered before her.

Finally, she closed her fan, and started to straighten her hair and clothing, while Jaken watched her intently. The demoness seemed to forget his presence. Much to his amazement, her expression had become one of horror and hopelessness and he heard her whisper to herself.

"I am the dead."

Then she turned toward the door, and was gone.

Jaken found Rin hiding beneath all the pillows on her bed. He would not have known she was there at all if not for her scent. Wide brown eyes peeked over the covers.

"Is she gone?"

Jaken puffed himself up.

"Of course she is!" he exclaimed. "Do you think I would not be able to run off riffraff like that?"

Rin let out a little shout of joy and bounded across the bed and the floor. She embraced Jaken with all her strength before he could stop her. Not that he put up much of a sincere fight, anymore.

"Come on, you little idiot," he told her. "Let's go get something to eat."

---

"Could you tell us then, please, where she has gone?" Yuka gave a slight bow of the head.

Kagome's mother did not know what to think. In all these years, it had always been enough to say "Kagome is away" or "Kagome is ill". For some reason, no one had ever come to visit, unannounced, while Kagome was on the other side.

"Well, I, I'm not sure…"

Yuka looked up sharply, and Higurashi knew right away that she had made a mistake. She tried to rectify it.

"That is, she just went out for a while. She didn't tell me where she was going."

"Oh." Yuka now looked confused, as if she was unsure what to do next. "Well, when she comes back, could you tell her to call us, or come see us, please?"

"Of course I will," Higurashi smiled. "I'm sure she'll be sorry that she missed you."

Minutes later, the three girls were standing out in the street.

"It doesn't make any sense," Yuka was saying. "Where would she go?"

"I don't know," Eri shifted her weight on her hips. "Can we go home now?"

"Sorry if you're bored," Yuka snapped. "But I still care about Kagome."

"Perhaps you're the one who is bored," Eri murmured. "Or maybe you're just being nosy."

"Can we _please_ not fight over this?" Ayumi pleaded, her head languishing on the arm she rested on a tree.

Eri sighed and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She squinted up at the shrine and then looked back at her friend.

"All right, Yuka," she said. "What do you want to do now?"

"Isn't it obvious? We spy on her, of course."

"But how are we going to do that?" Eri complained. "We all have jobs you know."

"We'll just have to take turns watching the place during the evening," Yuka said. "Sooner or later, one of us will have to see something."

Eri and Ayumi stared at their friend, hoping that she was joking. She wasn't.

The heat, which had been outrageous all summer and brutal enough to twist the metal door hinges and knockers, was hammering down on their heads. Ayumi had been relieved that the visit came to nothing and she had stopped watching the sky, but now she was trying not to think about her parched throat, or the ridiculous image of herself, stalking in the middle of the night outside the Higurashi shrine in a ninja outfit.

***

[End of Chapter 5]

[Next chapter: Our Memorials]


	6. Our Memorials

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter 6: Our Memorials**

_"Shall we never, never get rid of this Past? It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body!" –Nathaniel Hawthorne_

***

Kagura was returning to her master's den after leaving the Hyouden. Her misery crushed her, and her sudden burst of anger toward the toad demon had left her feeling numb and heavy. She flew most of the journey over the great river that cut through the Minami Mountains, but after about an hour, she convinced herself that the weight of her gall was determined to pull her down. She followed the trails from the coastal plains to the central mountains on foot. She planned to tell her master that she had waited for Sesshoumaru's return, buying herself a day or two of relative peace. The demonness would sleep that night under the distant and uncaring stars.

For a long, long time, Kagura's only comfort had been her own clever viciousness. Even though she was always acting at behest of Naraku, her deeds of cruelty to others—killing, wounding, foiling—had made her feel a little powerful, even if the power was borrowed. But this comfort had faded, like a delicious food that one has had day after day. And the days stretched out forever, measured in pointless encounters with idiots who did not know their own enemy, in schemes that fell apart, and in their brutal reprisals.

Her next comfort came from hope in her so-called enemies, but that hope soon faded as well, until nothing was left of it but bitter dregs she clung to out of poverty. It became clear to her that Inuyasha and his companions, and even Kikyou, would never be able to defeat Naraku. Kouga? Laughable. Before her own pride had all but eroded away, she was able to recognize it in all of them as their fatal flaw. Even Sesshoumaru, who may have been the only one capable of defeating the monster, would likely never do so. He would not trouble himself with such an enemy, a lowly half demon, until it was too late. Much, much too late. Clever viciousness now made useless, pride now long forgotten; Kagura's cruelty had dwindled to mere spite and scorn, born of hopelessness and bitterness.

Through all of this, there had been some few moments of happiness, mostly in the company of the hapless youth, Kohaku. Not that they had ever laughed together, pointed out shapes in clouds, picked flowers, played games, or done any of the things that people did when they enjoyed each other's company. They rarely even spoke. But the boy had his own soul, his own heart, in spite of Naraku, and she was the only one who seemed able to see this. It made her feel anchored to life.

But now Kohaku was gone. And Sesshoumaru was as distant as the stars. And Inuyasha and Kouga were useless. And the fruit of her mind, plots and schemes, was picked clean. She placed a hand on the trunk of tree as she walked passed, and the hand was sticky with sap when she drew it back.

_Kohaku is gone._

"He's better off," she mumbled to herself through hot tears that she did not notice. Kagura's soul was drowning in envy. She envied that Kohaku had escaped his slavery. She envied Rin for living in the comfort, freedom, and safety of the Hyouden. She greatly envied Kagome, who was followed, protected, even indulged—just because so many people loved her.

Kagura did not really understand what love was. But she knew it was something that Naraku loathed, that Sesshoumaru disdained, that Kagome cherished, that Kikyou regretted, and that she herself would never have. It must be a powerful thing indeed.

Kagura lay down in the middle of an open field, with trees and mountains as far away as possible. She gave herself up to another storm of weeping, and did not care who might have seen her.

How can such a world exist? Were there no gods? Were there no saints or angels or spirits, charged with justice? How could such a life as hers not be forbidden, not be at the very least eradicated from the earth?

At the bottom of her well of bitterness, Kagura envied Kanna. At least Kanna felt nothing. At least Kanna did not fear a reckoning. Even if Kanna could know the fear of tortures, she could never do anything to deserve them.

_Maybe I should._

Kagura began to realize the logic of emulating Kanna. If she were to live without hope anyway, at least she would be alive, and maybe even free of pain and fear. The notion took on an irresistible power of conviction.

_That is what I ought to do. I should be just like Kanna._

_You were made for this._

A bright movement caught her eye. The velvet sky above her was alight with feverish activity. Kagura experienced a secret joy as she imagined that she was the one who noticed a shower of glittering tears that seemed to be weeping just for her.

---

In backtracking to the ravine where they had encountered Naraku, Inuyasha and his companions traveled as fast as possible, but it was not fast enough for Inuyasha. They reached the spot within two hours of their departure from Edo. Inuyasha came to an abrupt stop where the scars left in the earth by his sword were still smoking. He hardly allowed Kagome enough time to climb off his back before he sped away, searching for even the faintest hint of Naraku's trail. He did not heed the shouts of his companions.

They were such a bother.

Miroku with his lechery.

Sango with her family drama.

Kagome with her…other life.

Such a pain in the ass.

If they would all just stop dragging him down for two minutes, maybe he could accomplish something. He would dispatch with the problem once and for all. Inuyasha never gave much thought to what would happen after that.

His friends receded into the background, and Inuyasha's mind was enveloped in the dark green shadows of mountain summer. The bottom of the ravine was a shallow and slow moving river, no more than a creek. Inuyasha ran straight through the middle, lashed by the frustration of his friends and his own impatience, ignoring the growing weight of mud on his hakama. If only he could get the slightest trace of him, the tiniest hint of his passing would suffice. Before he had gone even fifteen miles, however, the ravine tapered to an end, and Inuyasha found himself in the mountain paths. Looking around, he judged he was about eighty miles northwest of Edo, as the two-tailed cat flies.

He stopped. There was no use in aimless wandering. He closed his eyes.

_Think, just stop and think. Concentrate._

Trouble was, concentrating was never one of Inuyasha's strong points.

He stood still in the quiet, trying to clear his head of the buzzing of the past, the clinking of Miroku's staff, the sighs of Sango's suffering, and the scent of Kagome's hair.

For no particular reason, he thought of his mother. He was trying to remember how long it had been since he had visited her, when a strange breeze touched his cheek. It was remarkably cool for summer. He turned his head and realized the air was coming from a cave.

Inuyasha shrugged. It couldn't hurt to sniff it out. If nothing else, the humans would need a place to bed for the night. Besides, it was always possible that the enemy had used it, perhaps to regain his strength. Naraku's affinity for such places was no secret. Something lingering from the past, no doubt.

"Not that I'm one to talk," he grumbled aloud to himself.

After running for so long without stopping, the sudden, cool stillness of the cave pounded in his ears along with his blood. He let his eyes adjust to the dim light and he walked along with caution, feeling the walls of the cavern with one hand.

When his eyes had adjusted enough to make out the inner structure, Inuyasha gasped. He even rubbed his eyes once or twice to make sure the dim light was not tricking them. Then he lowered to his knees.

He saw before him the outline of twisted monsters with gaping jaws; and among that grotesque entanglement was the form of a young woman. All of this was frozen in a crystalline case, like purple ice. How could he have forgotten? It was the cave of Midoriko.

Inuyasha gaped at the morbid monument, then he sighed and his arms dropped to his sides. "I really am going in circles," he muttered.

There was a sound outside of his head. The sound did not come to his ears. Instead, he felt the vibration of its power in his chest, and he heard the words in his heart.

"Indeed you are, my poor child. You are as one who is hopelessly lost."

Inuyasha did not jump at the noise. He was not surprised because he did not have the time to be. At that moment, he felt a strange sensation in his head, as if the edges of his mind were fraying. Numbness overtook his senses, he stood still and mute, and he fell back into a dream.

"_I don't understand!' _It was his voice, and yet it was not._ 'Why won't you tell me?"_

"_Please, Inuyasha.' _He could never mistake that voice. _'It's because I don't want to lose you. I don't want you to seek revenge and lose your life."_

"_But that's exactly what you should want!"_

"'_Why?" _Her voice had been shaking_. "What good what that do us now?"_

Then he had done something strange. He laughed. He had forgotten how seldom he laughed anymore.

"_Come on, mom," _he had tried to assure her_. "Why would I go looking for revenge? I don't even remember the guy."_

His words hurt her. He knew that they would, though he would pretend not see it. But they also moved her to talk. And that was all that he had wanted—a story before bedtime.

"_Very well, dearest," _he saw her in his mind's eye, motioning to him to come and sit closer_. _

Inuyasha suddenly remembered that his mother's hair smelled of wild Rhododendrons.

She sighed and tried to sound lighthearted_. "If you're that eager for a story, I suppose I cannot deny you."_

She had told him everything she knew about the dragons, which as it turned out later was not much. She knew that Ichiro had been fighting against them for a very long time. They had committed various deeds of atrocity and brutality against him and his kin, though she never discovered the specific nature of these events.

"_I remember once,"_ she had said to him, her eyes growing dark and distant. _"He told me that he was very tired. I remember thinking that he must have trusted me a great deal to say that. He said he felt as though he was moving in circles, as if he had been caught in some game with his enemy that he could not escape."_

Inuyasha's knuckles crunched against the impassive walls of the inner mountain. "Son of a bitch!" he screamed. His lungs burning with his rage, Inuyasha pounded on the stone with impotent fury.

His hands throbbing and his knuckles probably fractured, he slumped on the cool floor and closed his eyes.

"You are not doomed to his fate, not yet."

"Shut up!" he yelled, his anger rekindled. "What the hell would a dead priestess know about it?"

"Who on earth are you talking to?"

For a second or two, Inuyasha tried to process that question, until he realized the voice was coming from his knee.

"Myouga? Where'd you come from?"

"I've _been_ here."

Inuyasha started to ask something about the little flea's whereabouts, but he closed his mouth again. "Did you just say something?" he asked instead. "Something about my fate, or my father's?"

"Uhh…no," Myouga answered slowly, peering at him. "Did _you _say something?"

Inuyasha, annoyed, rolled his eyes as he squeezed the poor, miniature demon between his fingers.

"Just why are you hiding out in this hole, anyway?" he demanded.

Myouga wriggled free with some effort. "I am not hiding out!" he protested.

"Really?" Inuyasha did not sound convinced. He looked around at the dark cavern. "Seems like a good place for it."

Myouga snorted and patted the dust off his clothing. "I've been waiting for _you_," he said. "I was fairly certain you'd come through this way sooner or later, since Naraku himself did scarcely two days ago."

"You've seen Naraku?" Inuyasha picked up the tiny demon again. "Where? When?"

"I just said two days ago!" Myouga shook his head. "That's really the trouble with you, my lord, you just don't listen."

"Myouga…" Inuyasha ground his teeth.

"Okay, okay." Myouga cleared his through and seating himself upright, taking on the air of a revered storyteller. "It all started just two days ago. I was not here, but in a village nearby, when quite suddenly the people became silent and some pointed to the sky. Then there were shouts, and many began to run in a sudden panic. In retrospect, I do not believe that Naraku was attacking the village, or anyone at all. But he was making no attempt to conceal or contain himself, and his form was monstrous to behold. Sickening fumes for a time filled the air, and the stars and the moon were blotted out. I myself did not see it—

Inuyasha grunted. "No surprise. Probably hiding under a skirt."

"Anyway," Myouga coughed. "I did not actually see the monster. But there is no mistaking that smell, though few times have I been exposed to it. I am still certain that it was your enemy. I surmised that you were probably chasing him, or you would be. So I have waited near this area to intercept you."

Inuyasha was quiet for a moment, his blood once again pounding in his ears, trying not to think about his own predictability. He had already forgotten his vision only moments before.

"But, I must admit, I don't really understand." Inuyasha's retainer narrowed his eyes at him. "Why did you not follow him straight away, when he was so clearly visible?"

"We went back to Edo," Inuyasha answered.

"Ah," Myouga let it drop.

Inuyasha lifted his head. "Myouga, do you remember which way he went?"

"Yes, he went mostly west, slightly north."

Inuyasha returned to his companions and led them to the cave so that they could take shelter for the night in reasonable comfort.

Miroku battled with tinder and flint until flames leapt up, putting on a show of dancing shadows on the cavern walls and washing the gloomy shrine in blood.

"You didn't say it was _this_ cave," Sango examined the encasement of the Jewel-creator.

"What?" Inuyasha turned around. "Oh, right. I forgot."

"How could you forget something like that?"

Inuyasha did not answer. He propped himself against the walls of the cavern, near the entrance, and closed his eyes. Before he drifted away, he heard a small voice ask him: _Are you ready?_

When Miroku had realized where they were, he suppressed a secret rancor. _How can he be so casual about it? Couldn't he have found somewhere else?_

He told himself that Inuyasha was different because of his longevity, that it would take a long time for the half-demon to recognize the patterns that trapped them. Miroku thought this because he had lost the ability to see into other hearts. He turned to Shippou, as he did more and more often, because youth made him remember hope.

The little fox demon was playing a game with Kirara, where he created little top toys out of thin air, and made them dance around the cat demon's feet. The diminutive demon chased them with delight, trying to capture them all at once until she turned around and around in a blur. Shippou was expecting it because she always did the same thing, but that did not stop him from collapsing into laughter every time he saw it.

"How do you do that?" Miroku asked him. He was trying to stall sleep.

"Eh?" Shippou looked up, startled. "Oh. Well, you know, I don't really know. I never thought about it. When I want them to appear, they just do."

"It's very remarkable, Shippou, to have such ability without trying. Have you ever wondered what you could accomplish if you pushed yourself?

Shippou took offense. "I push myself! All the time!"

"No, no," Miroku waved his hand. "I didn't mean that. I meant…well, when I was young, I had some natural ability as a monk, but the power grew as I grew and as I practiced. I guess I'm just saying I don't know much about fox demons. You're the only one I've ever met."

"That you know of."

Miroku smiled. "Right. That I know of. But Shippou, what are other fox demons like? Full grown ones, I mean."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I really only knew my parents. My dad," Shippou's eyes shone. "Now he was great."

He stood up and spread out his arms. Miroku realized with a sting that he had never asked Shippou about his parents.

"My dad was still young, for a demon, and still getting stronger. But he already had a lot of powers. He could transform much better than I can. He could create copies of himself that could walk and talk, you'd never know you were talking to an illusion."

"Amazing. That does sound formidable."

"Are you kidding? He could even throw this, I don't know, it was like a net. He would throw over someone and they couldn't move, even powerful demons."

"So…it was like a spider web?"

"No, more solid and uh, slimy."

"Like slime?" Miroku offered.

"Yeah!"

"Sounds unpleasant."

A silent lull followed, and Shippou created more spinning tops for Kirara.

"I know it is difficult, being an orphan," Miroku told him. "My father died when I was small."

There had been no need for him to say it, because Shippou already knew it. The kitsune had made it his business to know every possible detail concerning his companions. He followed that creed to the letter and never forgot anything, even if they were too wrapped up in their own nostalgias to notice.

"Actually," Miroku added, his eyes glazed with sleep. "I just wish it'd been easier, rather than any longer."

Shippou looked up at him, startled. "What do you mean?"

"Hmm? Oh, never mind, it's nothing." Miroku yawned. "Time for sleep."

Miroku stood up and shuffled across the cave. Shippou had the sudden impression that the monk had grown much older in the last few minutes. His thoughts were interrupted when Miroku picked him up, along with Kirara.

"Time for all good little fur balls to be in bed," he said.

He deposited Shippou next to Kagome, who had already rolled herself into a tight cocoon. Kirara he laid next to her mistress's blanket, which still lay empty. Miroku spread his own blanket on the ground and lowered himself and his creaking bones in their iron casing into it. He lay staring into the fire until drowsiness overtook him. A distant voice murmured in his ears "Worry not my son", but he did not even hear it.

Sango still stood before the frozen past that was looking down upon her. She cursed herself for not remembering that this cave was so close to home, for not realizing that she was so close to home. It was another memory that had slipped through her fingers.

She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Miroku had placed his blanket closer to hers than usual. She remembered when she would have taken him for a pervert before giving him a good kick in the ribs. But now it only inspired a deep sadness within her, because she realized that he had not tried to grope her or anyone else in a long time. She told herself to be grateful, not because she wanted to be, but in order to banish the notion that it was a symptom of time wearing him down. She laid down with her back to him without a word. Before she fell asleep, she heard a whisper.

"Worry not my daughter." She interpreted it as a phantom of memory and drifted into the dreaming world without giving it any thought.

Kagome burrowed deeper into her blankets, sure that sleep would never come in the shadow of the legendary priestess. It was like sleeping with the mummified remains of a grandmother in your room. Memories from her previous visit to this cave also disturbed her. They seemed like so long ago, and yet not so much. In her weariness, she thought to herself _what do I know? Maybe I was here yesterday. Maybe we come through here everyday. _

Kagome dwelled on the day's events, on the last time she saw her mortal enemy, the last time she saw her mother, the last time she saw Kikyou, on her failure as a daughter, student and as a human being in general, on feeling trapped in stupid behavior that she could not change, and on the head-numbing miracle of time travel. Somewhere in that assortment of blame and hope, a whisper was fading, drowned out by her chattering mind.

_Where once was one, there now is two._

The fire dwindled long after they were all in slumber. They walked in dreams in the last refuge they had, unaware of the spectacular show outside of dazzling diamonds raining in the night sky.

The next morning, the group struck camp and set out as early as possible, after cramming down their throats a meager meal of bread and salty pork. Though none spoke of it, they were all eager to distance themselves from the memorial to all their sorrows.

***

[End of Chapter 6]

[Next chapter: Our Wake-Up Bomb]


	7. Our WakeUp Bomb

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter ****7: Our Wake-Up Bomb**

_"To die will be an awfully big adventure." – J.M. Barrie_

***

Inuyasha and his companions cleared the small chain of low, green mountains near Midoriko's cave. They passed over the wide valley in the shadow of Mt. Asama in less than a day, and continued at such a pace that Kagome even nodded off as she clung to Inuyasha's shoulders. The landscape that blurred past seemed to be on a repeating loop: gentle green mountains, wide valleys with little rivers, then the same green mountains again.

The landscape changed after continuing westward on the second day at the same pace. The company had gotten a late start the day after Midoriko's cave. The combination of the heat and the beauty of the summer morning had made a bath irresistible to Sango and Kagome. They lay down on a lush, green hill to dry their hair and blow at dandelions, all the while ignoring Inuyasha's grunts and heavy sighs of impatience. Shippou, on whom the urgency of mortal enemies was lost, was content to sit and watch the billowy clouds sail like ships over the mountains. When he touched Kagome's hair, spread out on the grass, it was so warm it felt alive. She turned and squinted at him, then smiled with the stem of a dandelion between her fingers and teeth. He smiled back.

Inuyasha, meanwhile, paced nearby in his restless and useless fuming. They were getting _nowhere_. They were making good time, but without direct leads they could only follow the rumors and whispers that Naraku left in a trail of dread and nightmares.

Why was the bastard running? Where was he going? Naraku's flight was bizarre in light of the fact that, until now, he had spent so much time and energy near his old haunt, Edo, as though he were unable to tear himself away from sore spots in his head. Inuyasha would jump to say that Naraku was running in fear of himself but, inwardly, he knew better. What was he up to?

"Do you mind?" Inuyasha stood with his arms crossed, tapping his foot. "By the time you people get going you'll have us stopping again for lunch."

"Probably," Kagome answered in a flippant tone she knew drove him crazy. He glared at her and stalked away. She was in such a good mood she had to laugh.

"Okay, okay Inuyasha," she sighed with a tragic air. "Don't hurt yourself over there. We're going."

They were on their way less than ten minutes later. They followed the road that was littered with dark rumors of an unknown terror, a vamperic phantom that stalked the night and poisoned the air. They could not be certain that these tales implicated Naraku but, at present, it was the best lead they could get.

It was a hard road to keep through the mountains, no longer the gentle green slopes of the Musashi and Shinano country. These were the Hakusan. Their peaks soared into the clouds where winter came early and stayed late. The weary travelers did not want to lose time and energy by going over the mountains, but they strove to keep the straightest path possible as well. By late afternoon, the trail was winding through the dense forest that covered the lower slopes. Kagome saw dark paths arched with forbidding looking trees that turned from the main path, and she wondered aloud what made them, guessing perhaps that they were game trails.

Inuyasha glanced to either side and snorted. "Not likely," he said. "The biggest game around here are deer, and those paths are too straight for that. A deer couldn't walk in a straight line if its life depended on it."

"I believe he's right," Miroku said. "These are likely the homes of outsiders, hermits—those souls who forsook the world of civil war and violence and sought the ultimate solitude."

Kagome peered down one of the lonely paths and shuddered. "How awful!" she exclaimed.

"There are worse things," Miroku murmured.

According to Shippou's way of thinking, this forest was not a nice place. As they moved closer to the center of the valley, the trees closed in around them in a malevolent way, and the path was getter more and more dim and narrow. His senses were, he admitted at least to himself, not quite as sharp as Inuyasha's, not yet, but nonetheless he sensed an ominous, surly presence. He trembled.

"I don't like these woods," he admitted aloud. "Doesn't feel right."

"It's just your imagination," Inuyasha told him, but he did not sound very certain.

Kagome pulled the front of her sweater closed more tightly, even though it was so warm the air was suffocating, and looked up at the canopy.

"I think Shippou is right," she said. "The sooner we get out of here the better."

Miroku and Sango were quiet, but their expressions agreed.

After another hour or two, however, it did not seem like the forest was getting any lighter. Instead, the air had warmed to a suffocating blanket. They were getting hungry but, even though no one said it aloud, they all agreed it was more important to press on.

The interminable gloom was broken without warning and the afternoon July sun stabbed their eyes.

They stood dazed for a moment, blinking at the light like startled owls and trying to construct the landscape. It was not so much a clearing as a raised plateau that, since water drained away into the valley, did not have the dense vegetation of the surrounding hills. Also, they could now see other slopes with dark, unfriendly forests rising all about them. It was not encouraging.

"Okay guys," Kagome tried to sound cheerful. "Let's eat."

They had their lunch on the scruffy grass beneath one of the few beech trees that grew on the terrain. Despite the knowledge of the path looming ahead, they found their spirits lifting in the fine summer afternoon. It was still a beautiful day after all, when one could see the sky. After they had eaten their fill, they lounged on the grass. Kagome tried to make a crown of daisies, though it did not hold up very well. Miroku and Sango sat talking quietly. Inuyasha lay back in the boughs of the tree.

In the past few years or so Shippou had grown at a rate Kagome considered rather unfair. He was already far too big to carry. In fact, he was only a head shorter than Miroku. He existed on the edge of adulthood, bounding after butterflies one moment and trying to put on a display of serenity and altogether grown-up composure the next. Sometimes Kagome worried that he was not getting the rearing he needed, having spent the latter half of his childhood with a group of teenagers. But there was nothing to be done, and he seemed happy enough.

Just when she could feel the impatience of Inuyasha starting to bristle in the air and was waiting for him to insist that they get going; the serenity of the scene was shattered.

Inuyasha's nose picked up a detestable scent and in seconds he was on the ground, sword drawn. The others leapt to their feet and began looking around in alarm. Years of traveling together with the dog demon had taught them to recognize the danger signs.

"What is it?" Kagome cried, her voice raising an octave or two.

"Naraku!" Miroku spat out the name. "He's coming this way."

"Get ready!" Inuyasha shouted to his friends.

They tried to make themselves ready for anything. But they could not, for out of the opposite edge of the forest and into the clearing came not Naraku, but his vassal, Kagura.

Kagome did not know quite what to expect from Kagura after she had saved Kohaku in the canyon, but it was clear that the demoness had not come to fight them because at first she seemed unaware of their presence. When she did notice them, she stopped and regarded them for a moment. Kagome wondered why she had not been flying as she usually did. When she was closer, Kagome was shocked to see what she thought were the tracks of tears on her face.

In truth, Kagome and her companions were seeing a Kagura that they had not had the privilege of seeing before, one devastated by a prolonged rancor brought to unbearable extremes.

"Kagura?" Much to her friends' amazement, Kagome ran across the clearing to get a better look at her.

Kagura took an answering step back and lifted the wrist of her right hand, the hand that clutched her fatal fan. "Stay where you are," she warned.

"I wasn't going to attack you."

Inuyasha and her other friends stared at Kagome in stupefaction. Inuyasha moved closer to her.

"It's just that…" Kagome hesitated. "It looks like you've been—

Kagura cut her off. "Doubtless you are looking for Naraku," she said in her harsh voice. "Let me tell you, you are off the mark."

Inuyasha grunted. "I don't need directions from you." He lowered his sword at her.

She ignored him and leveled a gaze at Sango. Her scarlet eyes were dead and empty, an expression that Sango would never be able to put from her mind.

"You had better find another path for yourself, slayer," the demoness said. "There is nothing for you at the end of this one but revenge, even if you were blessed enough to get it, which I highly doubt."

Sango drew herself up as if to retort, but then her eyes widened. "What are you trying to say?" she demanded in a high-pitched voice. "Has something happened to Kohaku?"

Kagura was silent, and then she looked away and shrugged her shoulders. "Naraku says he is dead."

Sango's hands flew to her mouth and she dropped her weapon. She had imagined this moment a thousand times but remained unprepared for the declaration made in such august solemnity. She made no sound, only stood staring at the demoness in disbelief. Kagura still did not raise her eyes.

Even as her insides wasted, Kagome was sure she had not imagined it. Kagura's eyes were those of one who had been weeping.

Then the wind sorceress raised her hand in that old familiar gesture and plucked a feather from her hair. Within a heartbeat, she was sitting in her airy vessel and had moved to turn away.

But then Kagome was there. She knew she must have been out of her head, but she could not resist a compulsion that pulled her with slow but resolute strength, as if through water. Kagura's state of affliction was now obvious to her, and was an unmistakable and convincing proof of something Kagome needed. She took hold of Kagura's arm with such force that the demoness was pulled right off her vessel.

Kagura was too surprised to react at first; she stared up at Kagome in amazement of her audacity. At last, she grabbed the girls arm and shouted at her.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Please, don't go." Kagome's eyes were sunken in misery, but still determined. "You can—

"You can stay with us." Sango murmured with her head downcast. Miroku and Shippou turned and stared at her in astonishment. "You have saved Kohaku, probably many times. We will protect you."

Inuyasha was too much beside himself at this point to say anything. He was almost dancing about and frothing at the mouth.

Kagura's eyes widened and then against her will, and much to her consternation, filled with tears and desolation once again.

"You're crazy," she scoffed. "You've finally lost your mind." She tried to pull away, but Kagome would not let go.

"I know you don't want to," she exclaimed pulling at Kagura harder. "Why do you? Stay here!"

"You don't understand anything!" Kagura shouted. "Kagome! Kagome, I'm warning you—let me go!"

Kagura tried pushing the girl away, but then froze in terror. It was distant, but there could be no mistaking it. She felt Naraku's presence approaching like a cyclone. She pulled away from Kagome's grasp but the idiotic girl just pulled on her again, grabbing her arms, her kimono, anything.

"Damn you! Stupid girl!" Kagura was nearing a state of sheer panic. If Naraku arrived now and saw her in this company, he would surely kill her on the spot, and her ridiculous resolution to be just like Kanna would be even more stupid. Then she realized that this was her true destiny, and that Naraku had known it from the beginning. He had sent her on this errand to let her own machinery drag her towards death.

It was too late. He would be there any second. At the same moment that Inuyasha sniffed the air and clenched his teeth by instinct, Kagura's legs gave out from underneath her and she sank to her knees. The last of Kagura's once prodigious spirit faded. She resolved to wait for the end with abnegation.

"It's too late," she lamented. "He's coming. He's here."

Kagome stared at the suddenly dispirited woman in amazement.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted. "Naraku is coming! Get away from her, now!"

"No!" she shouted back. "I won't!"

This was the scene when Naraku burst through the trees, gleeful over his final victory over the slave who thought she was so clever. Kagura, for her part, did not even look up.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, her voice terrified, as she tried to pull the now listless Kagura away. "Help me!"

Inuyasha swore and dashed to her. He dragged them both out of harm's way a moment before the hammer stroke fell. As soon as he landed, he turned back to Naraku.

"I don't care why you're here," he declared. "It doesn't matter now. Now that you're here you're ass is mine!"

Naraku glanced in the direction of the raging dog demon and laughed a short, ugly sound. "I have not come here to fight _you_, Inuyasha, and this time, you will not interfere."

That statement, along with Naraku's next move, would be the most devastating Kagome had ever known. Naraku's fictitious handsome form melted away like a misty mirage and he was revealed as a thing of unimaginable horror. Immense, ancient, and wholly corrupt, Naraku's body was the foul amalgamation of countless demons he had devoured. Nonetheless, they still moved together in the perfect unison of a huge, monstrous spider.

"This is it," Kagura whispered, still kneeling with her head hanging, beside Kagome. "Who would have thought it would be today?"

Kagome was about to berate her for surrendering with so little resistance, but she could not bring herself to believe her own words in the face of such dreadful force. She kneeled beside the decimated Kagura and she comprehended the withering of all hope within both of them.

_I have no right to ask her to resist; she was always on the edge of resistance and we didn't bother to see it._

She looked for her friends and saw that each of them had been ensnared with such brutal velocity that there had never been a change to put up a resistance anyway. Naraku's body was comprised of a series of sinewy extensions that moved like the tentacles of a sea-monster come out of myth. None of them, not even Inuyasha, could move.

Kagome closed her eyes, to regain her sense of reality, or maybe to awake from the nightmare. She shuddered to remember how the day had started with such promise, such ease, and now she had to swallow the bitterness of being despoiled of everything before receiving a bloody and pointless death.

Naraku had not ensnared or pinned her or Kagura, however. Kagome could well imagine that he had plans that were more self-indulgent in mind for the two of them. The particles of his body shifted again, like a million points of putrid, sickly light. He repossessed his human body, but it was now more horrible than the spider, because it was now a true abomination—a man's torso and head upon the body of the foulest horror.

"Kagura," Kagome whispered urgently. "Where is your heart? Do you know?"

"I think," the she-demon struggled, "he keeps it in his own chest."

Kagome was relieved. She had hoped that was the case. She looked at the despicable creature leering down at them.

_This'll never work_, she thought.

But if she was going to die anyway.

_Mother…_

"How sweet," he mocked them, "a picture of friendship. Are you united by a common cause, or a common death?"

The despicable devil did not even change expression, but Kagura gave out a low cry and clutched her chest. She bent gasping, her head cradled on knees. Kagome then understood that Naraku could crush the heart within.

Kagome drew herself inward, like a spring, and tried to forget her terror. She left the dying Kagura and her struggling friends and all the blame of a past of a thousand squandered chances, and advanced upon the most terrifying thing she had ever seen, her feet heavy with the resolve of the dying. Naraku laughed with genuine mirth.

"You must be joking!" he mocked her. "I will give you this much, Kagome, you are no coward."

"No, Naraku," she answered calmly, still advancing. "I'm nothing like you."

Kagome could her Kagura gasping her name, trying to tell her to run away. Inuyasha was screaming the same thing, even though his lungs were collapsing under the slow pressure of a mountain. _They don't get it_, she thought, _where is there to go_?

Naraku's eyes narrowed a fraction at her insult. Without a word, he hurled his putrid flesh at her, intent on crushing her with no more effort than a tiny insect between his fingers. Kagome clenched her fists around her bow and, praying to every god she could think of, she blocked the filth with a swing of the weapon and sent it hurling back in his face.

He was surprised to say the least, but she was nowhere near victory, or even escape. She knew at that moment that she was still too weak to ever defeat him. But the only option left to the weak that cannot run away, is to charge into the other direction, into death and oblivion. And that is just what she did. While he was still surprised by the blow, Kagome ran as fast as she could, straight into the monster and into ruin. Inuyasha screamed her name in horror, and Kagura, Sango, and Miroku were petrified by terror and disbelief.

"Kagome!" Shippou wailed in agony. "NO!"

She could not breathe. The very air was as thick as slime, slime made of poisonous ash and fire. _This is what hell must be like_, she thought, she had hurled herself deliberately into hell. And then, in a second or two, she was right next to him. Naraku stared at her face for a moment, overcome by incredulity, until the light of his malice returned and he grinned.

"I had no idea," he almost purred, "that you were so eager for my company. How touching." With that, he placed two hands with indulgent slowness and unrelenting rigidity around her tender throat. "So much the better, I will enjoy this much more."

Despite her terror, Kagome noticed for no reason that he carried the stench of burning flesh and singed hair.

_Or is that me?_

His fingers curled around her like serpents, eager, relishing every moment of knowing he was powerful enough to befoul the flesh of the purest of the pure.

"So foolish," he smiled. "So pathetic. Did you honestly think you could harm me? I am unassailable."

"So it goes," she managed to answer, gasping and tearing with pathetic fury at his fingers while her own began to burn. "But not so much!"

With that, she did the one thing she could think of. She reminded herself with frightful coldness why she was here and she reached out her arm and plunged her hand directly into his chest.

Naraku gasped in surprise, but it took every ounce of spiritual power she could muster to break the casing of his fabricated frame. Beyond that tiny victory however, her powers were laughable. Nothing could have prepared her for the pain of meeting Naraku's noxious insides. She was sure that, even if she ever did get away, she would not be able to keep that arm. The attack upon Kagome's flesh was not just an attack upon the body. The pain carried with it a brutal trap of nostalgia that forced her to recall the terrible day her father died, so the pain of it moved from her heart and became concentrated and localized somehow in her right arm. It was this moment that truly changed everything, because now Kagome, for better of for worse, fully understood the nature, the threat, and the true terror of Naraku.

She realized however that she did still have a hand, because she finally closed her burning fingers around something very solid and round, the size of a large grape. She prayed fervently that it was either Kagura's heart or Naraku's sacred jewel shard. Her lungs burning with suffocation, and already near the agony of death, Kagome tried to pull away. But it was not that easy to get away from the immensity of him, and Kagome saw with a new terror that he could, and probably would, absorb her into his own body, for no other reason than to carry her tormented and desolate soul around for eternity. Panic froze her heart and she was amazed that she had not foreseen this possibility. Simple death would have been too easy. If she had been able to breath, she would have begged for release. She would have bargained away anything whether or not it was hers to give. She struggled harder. The pain was smashing in her head, breaking her mind, but still she tried to focus on the cries of her name coming from behind her.

Now Naraku was pulling _in_. He made the same movement when he wanted to vanish, to escape. There was a pull on her like a centrifugal force. Her ribs creaked against that power, like a house in a typhoon, and she screamed again in anguish. Her lungs filling with ash, her body on fire, and her mind overcome with blackness, Kagome was dying.

She screamed, over and over as loud as she could, the name of the only person she thought might have done this better. Then darkness took her, and she knew no more.

---

Inuyasha was on the verge of sheer panic. He could not imagine his life without Kagome and right now that seemed a very real possibility. What she had not realized in the throes of death was that she had in fact managed to save them all, at least for the moment. Naraku, in his amazed distraction, had withdrawn his body from them, just in time to spare them from suffocation. But Inuyasha was still powerless. He could see nothing ahead of him but a confusing wind and whirl of shifting lights. Naraku's inky miasma was clear, but now it was mingled with the faint glow of a familiar rose glow. It was the same light of the pure Shikon jewel and of the purifying arrows. All the same, none of them could make out either of the struggling opponents, so they dared not strike.

"Inuyasha," Kagura rose to her feet. "What are you waiting for? Use your sword! Kill him! Now's the time!"

"I can't!" he shouted at her. "Don't you get it? I can't see them, I could kill Kagome!"

"Inuyasha," she screamed, "she's already dead! This may be your only chance! Inuyasha—"

"SHUT UP! I'll—"

But Inuyasha was cut off. They stood frozen for only a second, and then strained their ears to pick up the sound of Kagome's agonized voice screaming out a name in terror. Kikyou. Again and again, she cried for Kikyou.

The air was pulling with the force of a spinning planet. At first, it was not powerful and they were too focused on their friend's cries to comprehend it. But then those cries stopped utterly and the force of the air stole their breath. They began losing ground. Inuyasha drove his sword into the earth, held on to it with one hand, and grabbed Shippou with the other. Sango and Miroku in desperation clung to a tree, the same tree under which they had peacefully taken their lunch on this very day.

None of them could breathe. Sango wanted to cry out, to scream _anything_, just to add her own puny voice to the scene. But her lungs felt as though they were made of stone and her voice squeezed out as a tiny whistle, swallowed by the wind. The desperation bereft Kirara of her strength. She lost her footing and transformed in midair. Sango reached for her without hesitating, and Miroku felt their grip become undone and he was sure that somehow they were about to go wherever Naraku was going, and they would not survive it.

Then Kagura was there. It took every ounce of her strength but she used her power of the winds to create a small pocket of resistance against Naraku's pull. It was weak, however, and would not hold out for long.

But just then, everything stopped, and became as still as stone, as frozen as Midoriko's monument. Miroku wondered if he was witnessing the creation of another jewel. It was a moment that felt endless, capturing them in an amber world a second long and a universe wide.

"It's too late! It's all over!" Kagura shouted. Her voice was shrill, but in that towering silence it rang with a hollow resonance. Then she threw her head back and laughed as one gone mad.

"Now to ruin!" she cried. "To the top of the world!"

She spread out her arms and began running toward the calamity, as a child might run into the ocean, but she never reached it.

It all exploded. The noise was deafening, and the force blew them around like rag dolls. Kirara in her natural genius caught Sango and Miroku in midair and saved them from a certain and sudden death. The force flattened trees and hurled rocks an unfathomable distance. The forest and the mountains, the very earth, groaned with the power of that shocking detonation. In their old age, Sango and Miroku would remember that sound, which would come to them in nightmares down through all the decades.

***

[End of Chapter 7, ending the "dry and dusty road" period]

[Next chapter: Higurashi and Yuka]


	8. Higurashi and Yuka

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World**

**Chapter 8: Higurashi and Yuka**

"_Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,  
doubting,  
__Dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before." –Edgar Allen Poe_

***

Many years later, even Ayumi would wonder what might have happened if they had stepped in and put a stop to it—if they had found a way to force Yuka to forget Kagome.

Then the day came when a line was crossed and they lost that chance forever.

Yuka sat at the kitchen table that morning working on a blueberry muffin and orange juice and reading the newspaper. That is, she was trying to read it. But the words inverted and rotated on the page like miniature pinwheels. The edges of the paper kept trying to flutter away out of her hands. When at last she put the ridiculous thing down in disgust, she saw at least some of the problem.

She was outside. A light breeze stirred the plain tablecloth that still lay before her, only now spread upon the grass. The muffin and juice had disappeared.

Yuka looked around at the surrounding forest. She glanced up and gasped. The sky was huge! Not only was she outside, but there could be no doubt that she was no longer in the city.

"Weird."

Thinking that there was no use staying in one place, she stood up and looked for a sign of a place to go. A twinkling light caught her eye, and she saw that nearby lay a shallow and narrow stream.

The distance between herself and the river banks evaporated. She did not remember walking but some time must have passed, because the sky had turned from an azure blue to a dark and sooty red. In the air there was the smell of something burning. Yuka looked down to find an inanimate lump at her feet, lying in the mud by the river.

She jerked her head back up to the scarlet sky. She did not want to look. She could not look.

A terrible pressure gathered above her, and weighed down her shoulders. She was being crushed to the earth by the invisible hand of a giant. Unable to resist any longer, Yuka kneeled over the form and looked down.

But it was gone; there was nothing there at all. A wave of relief washed over her, and she looked up at the sky again, with unshed tears stinging her eyes.

"You must be tired," someone said from behind her. "Running through the dreaming world will do that."

Yuka turned in surprise.

"Higurashi-san!" she exclaimed.

"No," the woman shook her head. "But you don't know what _I_ look like."

"Oh, I thought—"

The woman let out a low cry and hunched over, placing a hand over her shoulder. Yuka could see blood coming out from behind the fingers.

"Oh no!" she cried out. "Higurashi-san, are you hurt?"

Yuka tried to reach her, but the woman raised her other hand to ward her off.

"I told you, I'm not her!"

The hand in front of Yuka's face changed color. It glowed pink as if lit from behind. Without knowing why, Yuka was afraid and she stumbled back, trying to get away.

"Wait!" the woman shouted. "I need you to—"

Yuka awoke with a violent jerk. She was sitting in a chair, bent over the dining room table, and Ayumi was gently shaking her shoulder.

"My goodness, aren't you jumpy!" Ayumi exclaimed. "If you're that tired, why didn't you just sleep in? It is Saturday."

Yuka looked around in a daze, then her bleary eyes focused on Ayumi. "It's…Saturday?"

"Yeah, where ya been?" Ayumi went into the kitchen to pour some coffee. "Good thing too, or you'd be late for work, again."

"Oh, that reminds me," Ayumi added. "I need you to—

But Yuka cut her off by leaping to her feet. Ayumi stared at her in amazement.

"I…I have to go." Yuka mumbled and then dashed in the direction of the front door.

"Yuka!" Ayumi called after her, trying to put her coffee down without spilling it. "Wait! You're still in your nightgown!"

Yuka turned without losing a stride and bolted in the other direction, disappearing into her room. She emerged less than two minutes later, pulling down the hem of her shirt and wriggling her feet into her shoes. Ayumi, who was never caught off guard for long, had the presence of mind to have Yuka's keys and purse ready.

"I'm going to the shrine," Yuka told her as she took the items. "Get Eri, get dressed, and then catch up."

Ayumi tried to process that. "But…wait a sec…Yuka!"

Yuka was already gone.

Grumbling to herself, Ayumi went into Eri's room and shook her awake.

"Eri, Eri," she shook her sleeping friend. "Wake up. Yuka's gone."

"Huh?" Eri squinted at her. "What are you talking about? I don't even care. Go away. It's too early." She pulled the blankets over her head and squirmed down deeper into them.

Ayumi sighed. "Eri. Eri!" She jabbed her friend in the ribs. When, without meaning to, Ayumi poked her a little too hard in the kidneys, Eri sat bolt upright.

"Damnit!" she exclaimed. "What's the big deal?"

"We have to go. Yuka's probably halfway to the shrine by now."

Eri was ready to retort with a complex statement about Yuka's state of mind, Ayumi's choice of hairstyle, and Kagome's ancestors and probable descendents, but was cut off by a pair of jeans landing on her head.

"No time," Ayumi told her. "Get dressed. Hurry!"

Months and months later, as she tended the wounds of the valiant and comforted the dying, Eri would not be able to remember how she had found herself on the steps of the Higurashi shrine that day.

Yuka, for her part, would never forget the moment her foot touched the first landing of that stretching stairway. At that moment—when across the tunnel of time the mountains shook beneath Sesshoumaru and Kikyou lost consciousness on the banks of the river as Kagome screamed her name in the distance—at that moment it began to rain.

And Yuka had already decided what to do.

By the time Eri and Ayumi arrived, Yuka was seated in the Higurashi kitchen, cradling a cup of untouched tea in her hands and weeping.

Ayumi stood in the doorway, stupefied, but Eri pushed past her and moved to Yuka's side in surprised alarm. Yuka, however, cut her off with an extended bout of hysterical blubbering.

"I know! I'm so pathetic! I'm so s-s-sorry!" she managed to say between gulps of air, and pressing her face into a handkerchief. "But Kagome said, if I ever got into trouble…"

Eri looked around the room in confusion. Higurashi appeared as lost and as taken aback as Ayumi and herself. She was holding her own tea, untouched, and staring at Yuka as though she had reason to believe the girls could not be there because she was dreaming.

"I lost my job." Yuka continued to sob.

This statement was enough to shock Eri and Ayumi out of their trances. With a deliberate lie, a minor manipulation, Yuka had just torn their lives to pieces—even if she did not yet realize it.

"I…I can't afford my rent and…" at this point, Yuka's voice became an almost squeaky wail. "My parents live in another country! And I don't want to call them in shame! Kagome told me, if I ever got into trouble, that I could come here!"

In the hollow silence, Eri listened to her drumming heart.

Higurashi did not move. It felt like an eternity passed before she realized what was happening. _Oh good heavens, she intends to live here!_

For any number of reasons, Higurashi was not that familiar with these three girls. She only knew that they were Kagome's childhood friends. She was not at all inclined to let a complete stranger move in to the shrine.

"I can pull my weight!" Yuka went on, her shoulders still shaking. "I can cook, and clean, and tend to the shrine."

_But, if Kagome really said that, what can I do?_

_Kagome _would _say something like that._

To cover her confusion, Higurashi turned to her practicality. She rose, and took Yuka's tea from her hands, lest the girl, in her emotional state, drop it on the floor—_breaking another one_.

_Childhood friends—they may be all that's really left of her._

A breeze of icy horror invaded Higurashi's heart, but she shook it off. If this girl was holding on to a promise from Kagome—_sound familiar? —_how could she take it from her? And if she couldn't have the real Kagome…

The silence continued and Ayumi could not understand how she had come to this point. She reviewed the morning's events, but only concluded that she was not dreaming. Eri, for her part, assessed the situation in so far as it affected her and resolved that she could no longer bear the outrageous oddness of it all.

"Very well, then." Higurashi said, and Ayumi started at the broken silence.

"If you will wait here, I will go make some room for you upstairs, in Kagome's room."

"Oh, so we will share a room then?" Yuka asked with a naked hope.

"Ah, well," Higurashi hesitated. "It is the only space I have for you. Kagome is away for a while, visiting distant relatives."

Then she laughed to conceal her anxiety. "Yes, I'm sorry I never did give her that message a few weeks ago. But she wasn't here for very long, and things were quite hectic around here."

"Oh, no, no," Yuka smiled. "It's no problem."

After Higurashi left the room and climbed the stairs, Eri turned on Yuka.

"What the _hell_ is the matter with you?" she demanded in a whisper. "How could you lose your job? Without even telling us?"

Yuka answered her in a calm and even tone. "It doesn't really matter now, does it?"

Eri's eyes narrowed and she peered closer at her friend. "You seemed to have regained your composure pretty fast."

"I didn't really lose it, you should have known that."

Ayumi gasped. "Yuka!"

Eri threw her hands in the air. "I just can't believe what I'm hearing. You've really gone too far this time, Yuka. I don't know where this obsession of yours is coming from, and I've tried to be patient with you. But now it's hurting the rest of us. Aside from manipulating Kagome's poor mother, what are Ayumi and I supposed to do now? You've left us in a lurch for rent, you know."

"It's a nice apartment." Yuka did not appear concerned. Her expression was stiff with resolve. "You should have no problem finding a third roommate."

The room was quiet; Ayumi and Eri stared at their friend.

"Yuka," Ayumi said in a low voice, "we don't want someone else."

Yuka's jaw tightened. "I know. I'm sorry, I really am. But this is for the best, I swear."

"How?" Eri hissed in frustration. "How is this best for anyone? Just tell me that?

"You'll have to trust me."

They were quiet again. Eri suspected that Yuka was trying to put her in a situation where she could not refuse, as she had done before with the Sleuth project. But she eluded the trap and put things in their place.

"Actually, Yuka, I don't have to do anything." Eri's expression was stern. "If you're going down the path of insanity, we don't have to go with you. All we have to do is say—

At that moment, Higurashi reentered the kitchen.

"So, girls," Kagome's mother tried to sound cheerful. "Would all three of you like to stay for lunch? Or brunch, I suppose it is."

Eri's eyes had not left Yuka's. "Goodbye." She then turned and left the room.

Ayumi bowed to Higurashi. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled. "We…we have to go…so sorry."

Ayumi turned to leave, but stopped short. "Yuka, you'll have to come and get your things later today, or maybe tomorrow."

Yuka could only nod. She watched her two former roommates leave, carrying an old life with them, and she steeled herself for a solitary journey into the unknown.

The truth was that Yuka had no idea that she was leaving the everyday and was entering a world of mortal danger, where time was collapsing and dreams paced the kitchen and the courtyard like long lost ancestors. Even Higurashi had not fully realized at that time the new situation, that the shrine was becoming a retreat for solitude itself.

Despite the hallucinations, which even Souta could see, and despite the sighing of ghosts that they did not even recognize, the Higurashi family refused to admit that anything was wrong. They continued to see every day as every day that had passed before it. Yuka however, as an outsider, did not take long to realize that she had entered a madhouse.

Her first clue came only two days after moving in to the shrine. She had spent both nights awake in a feverish state, watching the minute movements of silverfish along the edges where the walls met the ceiling. On that morning, she had dragged herself down to the kitchen to flood her veins with dark coffee.

Higurashi stood over the sink, staring into a tea cup. Before she noticed Yuka, Higurashi turned and, without warning, flung the cup into the far wall. Yuka jumped to the side by instinct as a spray of porcelain fragments and wet tea dregs covered the counter and door frame. Yuka turned to stare at the woman in amazement.

Higurashi stared back without seeing her, and then pushed through the screen door. She walked across the courtyard and stood in the rain staring up at the great tree in the middle of the shrine.

Yuka knew that the cup was not meant for her, but she did not and could not have known that Higurashi had looked down into her empty tea cup and had found the soggy black shape of a howling dog.

Yuka tried to shrug off this first incident, but when she overheard Higurashi talking to herself in an agitated tone (she was in truth conversing with the Hero); when she was unable to get Grandfather Higurashi or Souta to see that anything was the matter; she suspected that the woman was insane, that the shrine was sinking irrevocably into the quicksand of senselessness, and that she had been driven all along by divine intervention to save them.

Before a week had passed with her living there, Yuka had begun to take over the daily systems of the shrine. It began with chores and errands. At first, she was only deciding what loads of laundry were washed first and what was stocked in the pantries. But as Higurashi sank deeper into her dreaming world, and blindness and old age relegated Grandfather to a corner, Yuka's closed her circle of control.

She remedied the growing chaos that centered around the kitchen by imposing regular meals at set times when they all ate together. She arranged Souta's activities with such ease and efficiency that through preoccupation he became even more removed from the affairs of the house. Once she had gained access to the house accounts, Yuka hired workers to clear out months of neglect that they carried away in sacks of leaves and cobwebs, and she opened all doors of the shrine buildings to the four winds.

Except of course for the building that contained the well. It was so dilapidated that Yuka took it for a long unused tool shed and, fearing that someone would wonder in and injure themselves, she fastened the doors with a heavy padlock and forgot about it.

The mad restoration went on despite the rain that had not ceased for more than a few hours since her arrival. Because of the weather, attendance at the rejuvenated shrine was still low but, by imposing a modest fee for admittance, Yuka managed to restore the accounts to positive.

During all this time, she had not forgotten for a moment her original design. She snuck about the house, turning over papers and rattling jars, trying to find a clue concerning Kagome's whereabouts. Kagome's room offered the least help of all because it looked as though the girl should walk in it at any moment. The only strange thing Yuka found was a tiny glass jar with a cork stopper on Kagome's desk, but it was empty.

Souta lived out his life as normal, and was almost never home. Grandfather, renewed by the restoration of the shrine, was content to sit at a counter in the first building, selling fake ancient relics and making the visitors listen to long and uncomfortable stories. Higurashi kept up her vigil with the dead.

None of them would admit that anything had changed until after Higurashi discovered the divinations.

Higurashi had never been insensible, as Yuka thought. Yuka had not seen the unmistakable sign in the tea cup, she knew nothing about the ghosts of dog demons, and she could not have understood Higurashi's anxiety over Kagome, much more real than her own. While Yuka had taken over the daily business of the shrine, Higurashi had let it happen because she had become far too involved in something much more important.

_A fairy tale, _she'd said.

One morning, Higurashi broke a prolonged period of silence.

"I need to go to the library. I'll be back later."

Yuka was too startled to say anything, and Higurashi her breakfast untouched.

The closest library was a substantial one, on a corner where a residential area transitioned into a business district. Higurashi took the train to the nearest stop. Gripping a pink umbrella, she stepped out of the underground city and dashed across the crosswalk as soon as the neon light was green. She pushed open the flat, glass doors.

The air inside the building was different. At first, Higurashi could not place the feeling, but then she realized why it had a startling clarity.

_There are no ghosts here._

Here, the past was kept safe in bound boards and glued paper. This library had an extensive section on the Feudal Era, though it was not as large as the section on the Edo Period. The notion that Kagome or her companions must exist somewhere in these manuscripts had entered Higurashi's head and it became a passionate idea she could not release. As Yuka sat at the table in the Higurashi kitchen and opened a ledger of the family's budget, Higurashi sat at one of the gleaming desks at the public library and poured over a manuscript describing the creation of the Shikon jewel.

But it did not tell her anything that she did not already know.

Street lights flickered on in a string along the street and the library made ready to close its doors; still Higurashi walked backed and forth from the shelves to the tables, carrying pile after pile of history books. At first, she focused on books that concerned feudal lords because they seemed the most generous. Then she moved on to collections of myths and legends, thinking that Inuyasha or someone like him had to be found in this way.

She scanned line after line, but nothing brushed against her memory. When there were only two minutes left before the library closed for the night, she grabbed three random books and checked them out.

It was late when Higurashi left the station nearest the shrine. She walked the three blocks at a brisk pace, thinking how much of her life had been dominated by her husband's heritage. She took small notice of anything around her until she looked up by chance and caught the eyes of an old woman who was huddling behind the first torii of the shrine.

"Oh, my pardons," Higurashi bowed. "Are you visiting the shrine?"

Now that she was closer, the woman seemed even older, bent and shrunken almost to a doll size.

"No," the woman answered. "I can't come in."

Higurashi thought that the woman might have been homeless; she juggled her books, umbrella and purse, trying to locate some change.

"She isn't coming back."

Higurashi froze. "What?" she gasped.

The old woman's large, empty eyes filled with sudden sympathy. "You must be strong."

She looked at Higurashi's hand, clutching a handful of yen. "Money can't replace it, no memory can erase it. We're never gonna find another one to compare."

"What?" Higurashi said again, stunned with incredulity and unable to think of anything else to say.

The woman turned and hobbled away. Higurashi could only watch her leave.

Higurashi climbed the long steps leading to her home, clutching her books, and telling herself that the old woman had been crazy.

_That's all, she was just crazy._

That night, she poured over the library books until her eyes were strained and her head heavy. Yuka came into the kitchen and offered to make tea.

"I don't need any," Higurashi answered. "Thank you child."

Yuka thought that the woman seemed more rational than she had in weeks, and she seized the opportunity.

"Higurashi-san," she said. "Where is Kagome?"

Higurashi did not miss a beat, but said without hesitation, "She is away."

"Yes, but where," Yuka pushed. "She hasn't called, or written, no one here has called her."

Higurashi was silent. She turned a page.

"Higurashi-san, why—

Higurashi, frustrated by the books and the nuisance of the panting of a dog that Yuka did not see, cut her off with uncharacteristic heat.

"You need to stop asking so many questions. Go to bed!"

Yuka did not persist, but that answer planted an enigma in her heart that she could never resolve. From that time forward she regarded Higurashi as an obstacle. She left the kitchen in silence.

In truth, Higurashi had taken small notice of her. She returned to her book. As soon as Yuka turned the knob to Kagome's cavernous bedroom, Higurashi's eyes landed on the line:

"The Hero and The Hound shall appear before you, and you will find my words in the oracles."

Higurashi shivered. _The hero and the hound?_

Could it be a coincidence?

She turned over the book to reread the cover. It was no more than a collection of accounts from a forgotten estate in Japan's distant past. Up until that point, the book had consisted of a tiresome repetition of "today twin calves were born" and "yesterday we slaughtered three pigs for the New Year's feast, which is tomorrow" and "you will find here the positive accounts and here the negative ones, so you see the estate has done passably well this year" and so on and so on.

Higurashi flipped back and forth between the cover and the bizarre line she had just read. At last she decided that the best thing to do was to continue reading and investigate whether or not a pattern emerged.

She trudged on through the ledgers, line by tedious line.

At one o'clock in the morning, Higurashi put the book down in disgust and rubbed her strained eyes.

"There's an easier way."

The Hero was sitting in the chair next to her. Higurashi was not surprised.

"How long have you been there?"

"I don't think I can answer that."

She gave him an exasperated look.

"Time does not work the same way where I am," he said.

"I see. You were you saying…?"

"Don't try to read all of this garbage line by line. There's too much for you to ever get through."

"I don't know," she mused, pick up the book and turning it over in her hands again. "I could probably finish this tonight."

"There are many more waiting for you."

Higurashi started to feel alarmed.

"How many?"

He ignored the question. "There are words, keywords, that are meant for you to see. Scan for those words without bothering to read the rest."

"What words? And how can I be sure I won't miss them?"

"If I must I will give you a list of the words. And you won't miss them. You won't be able to."

He then dictated to her what he called the "keys to oracles". By that time, Higurashi had forgotten that she had been looking for tales from the past, not predictions of the future. She was too astounded by this new revelation to ask him what he had meant by "that are meant for you to see." When she looked at the chair again, he was gone.

The keywords did indeed make it easier, but in the three books that she had brought home, she found only three other mysterious sentences.

"Seek that which was hidden, for it was hidden in these mysteries to be kept secure for this day. You alone can hear my voice, lost amongst all others."

That seemed more clear now. Whoever left these messages, left them for her.

"Guard well the Bearer, for there shall be no other."

Higurashi could not make anything of that one.

"There will be shelter where you thought was only perfect destruction."

Higurashi sighed. What was the point of keys that only unlocked gibberish?

At five o'clock in the morning, she put the books in a pile in the center of the kitchen table. Higurashi remembered how she had come to this point.

_Okay, maybe I'm the one who's crazy._

After all, she was the one seeing things; she was the one talking to ghosts; she was the one rummaging through musty manuscripts looking for oracles. She experienced a deep nostalgia for her old reliable sensibility, and she resolved to take the ridiculous books back the next day and to forget all about the ghosts of dogs.

But when, upon leaving the kitchen, she reached to turn off the light, she was thrown into another crisis. She saw the calendar.

Tomorrow was Souta's birthday. It was bad enough that she had forgotten, but worse than that was the fact that Souta's birthday was three months after his sister's.

Higurashi wept in consternation. Three months had passed since her daughter had been home and, because of the feverish dreams and the interminable sound of rain, she had not realized it.

"Dear heavens!" she cried. "What has happened?"

She ran to her father-in-law's bedroom.

"Jiisan! Jiisan!" She shook the old man's shoulders.

He opened his bleary eyes and, when he recognized her, gave her a toothless smile.

"Miichan! Have you come with breakfast?"

"Jiisan, something is wrong!"

The old man lifted himself with a great effort. "Eh?" He mumbled. "What's that? Is it the store?"

"No, no, no," Higurashi was impatient. "Kagome, it's Kagome. She's been gone for so long. Something must be wrong!"

Her father-in-law peered at her.

"What are you talking about, Mikomi-chan? I saw Kagome just two days ago." With a grumpy huff, he rolled himself back into his blankets.

For a moment of confused elation, Higurashi thought that her madness had imagined it all, but her hopes fell at her feet when she realized with cold clarity that during her communion with dreams the old man had descended into a haze of senility. From outside she heard the last haunting cries of the night owls and she thought of Souta.

_Oh no! How long has it been since I talked to that child?_

Her panic proliferated throughout the house when she found Souta's bed empty, and she ran into Kagome's room like a mad woman. Once again, she was almost led to believe she had imagined it all when she saw a little head of black hair on the pillow. She threw back the sheets in one jerk.

"Yuka!"

Yuka opened her eyes wide and stared at her, then sat bolt upright.

"What?" she gasped. "What is it?"

"Where is Souta?"

The look Yuka gave her wrapped Higurashi in shame and doubt.

"He's at Satoru's house, of course."

Higurashi returned to the kitchen, exhausted by the night and by the panic.

"What has happened?" she asked the empty room again. "What have I done?"

The horror of her forsaken father-in-law, of her lost daughter, and of her forgotten and solitary son, swallowed Higurashi in a universe of grief, and she wept at the kitchen table until Yuka came to prepare breakfast.

Yuka paid no attention to the suffering woman. She went through the motions of her chores with a formal stiffness and abandoned Higurashi to her fate.

***

[End of Chapter 8]

[Next chapter: Inuyasha]


	9. Inuyasha

**The Edge of Resistance**

Book One: The Dreaming WorldChapter 9: Inuyasha

"_By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." –Confucius_

***

The explosion that thundered the mountains and sundered the sky sent Inuyasha flying an incredible distance, with a roar of rage splitting his throat, until his body crashed into a tree with a crunch like a box of bone tiles. He awoke some twelve hours later.

Before he regained full consciousness, the taste in his mouth and the smell in his head brought everything back to him in a blazing flash. With a strangled cry, he wrenched his body to fly back to the scene, without thinking, without realizing that any time had passed.

He was rewarded with a lance of searing pain that ran down his right arm from the shoulder. He discovered that the limb was twisted behind him and that he could not move it. He pulled again, and heard the wet tearing of flesh. When Inuyasha gasped in pain his lungs filled with a mixture of dirt, ash, and miasma. There was no way to know how long it had been raining, but the mephitic mud had become a cake on this skin and cement in his hair.

Inuyasha turned his head on a weak neck and peered through matted and blackened hair to see a short branch protruding from the tree, painted with blood. His right arm was impaled on it.

The demolished state of his body crushed Inuyasha even more in his heart. He surrendered to the indisputable evidence that Kagome was dead.

The physical torture eased to a dull, burning throb. The toxic rain veiled the world in gloomy gray. Inuyasha stared into the shadows and lost the will to move. Unable to fight his pain and weariness, he fell into darkness again.

Moonlight was shining down through a mesh of limbs and dark leaves, black against the indigo sky and swaying like waving ghosts. The air was sweet and clear. Inuyasha's body felt light, almost insubstantial, as if he would float from the moss covered forest floor at any moment and ascend to the pale, celestial globe above. Inuyasha had a vague sense that this was all impossible, but he could not remember why.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of music and laughter. He turned and saw a clearing with a large house, gaily lit with colorful lanterns. The night air sparkled with chatter and people dancing to odd, ancient music. The melodies were sad and merry at the same time. He crept closer and tried to make out faces in the crowd, but everyone turned away whenever his eyes fell upon them, so that he could only catch glimpses of blurred features and swaying hair. He thought he recognized a kimono printed with large flowers encircled in wispy leaves. The woman in it had white hair that reached almost to her feet, and Inuyasha took this as a sign of old age. He believed for a moment that he had discovered his mother as she should have been. Perhaps her death was all a misunderstanding, a mistake that some absent-minded deity of destiny had finally rectified.

That lasted for only a second. He soon realized that the woman was not old at all and she was not his mother. She caught sight of him out of the corner of her gleaming and exotic eye, and she took the elbow of the man beside her, guiding him away. In spite of his confused disappointment, Inuyasha was about to call out to them when a cold hand glided across the back of his neck and almost made him scream.

"You don't have to worry about them anymore," it was a sweet, familiar voice. "You have me now."

In another instant of elation, he thought it was Kagome. A cry of relief already on his lips, he stumbled and choked on his surprise when he saw it was Kikyou instead.

She looked the same as she always had. She even smelled the same. Her body gave off the heat of a young and vital woman. Once again, a little voice in his head was trying to tell him that this was all impossible, but it had been reduced to a pitiful whine, like a mosquito one keeps waving away from one's ears. He mumbled something incoherent, trying to express confusion or some other unnamed and forgotten emotions, but she did not notice.

"So, half-breed, what do you think?"

When she spoke, her voice was flint, and the words faintly shocked him.

"Huh? About what?"

"About this," she reached out to touch the cupped bulge in front of him.

Inuyasha's mouth went dry, but as soon as her fingers brushed his hakama he felt them like cold and hollow twigs and he smacked her hand away, horrified.

"I don't believe any of this!" he shouted. "It's all lies! This is a trick!"

Kikyou threw her head back and laughed with scorn.

"Fine," she shrugged. "Have it your way."

He was pulled down, down, his feet no longer beneath him, his hair pooling in front of his face, and for a moment he thought the Muonna was dragging him under water again. He shoved his hair aside to see Kagome's face staring up at him with wide and burning eyes. He felt another wave of relief, but then he could not remember why he should be relieved.

"Don't you remember?" she purred in his ear, working her fingers through his hair and down the back of his neck. "We did it once before."

He did remember, of course, and the memory ran down his spine like a drop of icy water.

Before he knew what to say or what to do, logic and decisions ran away from him and ahead of him, and he found he was already inside her, and she was already clinging to him, panting and crying loving nonsense in his ear. A part of him still understood that this could not possibly be happening, but the senseless sensations were overtaking him—deep, dark, and irresistible.

_Stop it stop it stop it stop it—_

—ran on a loop through his head, but with every refrain he only thrust deeper.

He knew it wasn't Kagome underneath him. He saw the black gash in her right shoulder and he knew it was Kikyou; not as she was before Naraku and not as she was now remade, but Kikyou as she was in death. Though she stared up at him and grinned with heartless malice, he knew he was fucking her corpse. But the haze in his brain was too thick now and he only went faster, in an act loaded with rage and recrimination. He heard himself screaming at her.

"Where is she? I know you know! Tell me, you bitch!"

Then the strings in his body began to twang and vibrate. He would finish at any moment and the thought filled him with a new horror. And Kikyou just laughed. It was the most dreadful, lifeless sound he had ever heard.

Inuyasha awoke with a muffled cry and a painful jerk. His body flinched and cringed as he shook off the comatose sleep and remembered the poisonous pain. In the subdued terror of the nightmare he had come free of the limb and had fallen to the ground. It was still raining, and the dark gray made it impossible to tell how much time had passed. The vile rain had soaked his fire robe. It ran down his face and trickled into his mouth, drawing a line of fire down his raw throat. He spat some of the toxic water out and lowered his head. It was not annoying, or even uncomfortable. It did not matter if the whole world drowned in it. As far as Inuyasha cared, it could rain forever.

Time passed unnoticed, and he drifted in and out of consciousness. Inuyasha did not lift his face again until an unfamiliar voice roused him. He did not hear the words, but he saw before him a young priestess. She had a wealth of black hair that was plastered to her face and neck and her haori, that had once been a sky blue, was now a dull gray-brown. She wore a necklace with a pendent made of two crescent moons that faced away from each other and she carried a quiver on her back as well as a short sword. She was standing in an all too familiar stance, pointing an arrow at his chest.

If not for the rain already burning in his throat, Inuyasha might have choked on overwhelming rancor against his fate. But he said not a word. In truth, he hoped she would shoot.

She did not. She moved closer with fearful caution, and then gave a startled cry.

"Inuyasha?" she exclaimed, dropping her weapon. "I cannot believe it!"

He tried to peer at her, but his eyes could not focus. He tried to think of all the priestesses who would know him, but he could only croak: "Kikyou."

He glanced at the discarded bow, disappointed.

"No, no I'm not her."

He remembered waking up on another tree.

_Kikyou! Kikyou! Kikyou! Whoever she is, I'm not her!_

"I'm Botan, don't you remember?"

Botan leaned over him, and she could see right away that her question was useless. Even if he was a demon, his injuries were so severe that she decided in the accepting manner of an experienced nurse that he would soon die. She had come looking for an explanation for the cataclysmic commotion in the mountains, for the source of the poisonous rain that choked the rivers with dying weeds, but all she found was a dying dog demon. Botan knew his past, or some of it anyway, and to see it all ended here in a mangled and foul mess at her feet inspired a deep sadness in her.

Maybe she could play a small part in this epic.

Inuyasha slept for twelve days. He opened his eyes to a world of water. He was so wet that he could not reconcile his surroundings with his last memory. It had been raining when he was last awake, so was he still outside?

No, he could see a roof in front of his eyes, even though water fell down through the thatch in too many places to count. He was on his back, on a bed that was raised on bricks and piles of bamboo and straw. His left hand slid off the bed and landed in water. It must have been at least a few inches. He commanded his aching body to sit up, if only because it felt like he was lying on a bed of hot coals, but his muscles would not respond.

"I can't believe you're awake!"

Botan had returned. She was standing beside him and smiling, a tight a cheerless expression.

Inuyasha spoke for the first time in fourteen days.

"I can't move. My back is burning."

With painstaking care, Botan raised Inuyasha's shoulders. After only a moment, she laid him down again just as gently.

"I'll be right back," she said.

The young priestess returned in minutes with a few other maidens in tow. With some effort, they aided Botan in raising Inuyasha to a sitting position. Botan placed a wooden bowl of a foul smelling solution on the bed. Inuyasha felt a stretching sensation on his back, and something dropped from her hands into the bowl with a thick plop. Inuyasha glanced at it and cringed.

"Leeches." It was neither a question nor an exclamation.

"Yes, your back is paved with them."

"A little lax in your care, don't you think?" Inuyasha's throat was too raw and weak to inject all the venom he wanted into his voice. It came out instead like the rustle of rice paper.

Botan did not notice, and did not grow angry.

"I'm sorry Inuyasha," she said. "Crops are rotting, cattle and pigs are drowning, and many would be eager to trade places with you."

That was when Inuyasha learned that he had slept for so long, and that in all that time the rain had not ceased. Everything was weighed down with the water, pressed and weeping into the earth. One had only to touch an object, and its walls would collapse and mix with everything else in a sickly, gray soup.

He did not speak again that day. Inuyasha did not use this time to contemplate the disaster that had befallen him, or the fate of his companions, or the path that had led him to this brackish hut, or the next step that he should take. In truth, in those early days of conscious rain, Inuyasha did not think of anything at all.

It was Botan that forced him into action. After the leeches had been removed, he had remained sitting up because no one came back to move him again. He sat deaf and dumb to everything around him, nibbling like a placid mule on the few strips of salted pork Botan brought to him. He did not even look up when Botan and some men from the village dug a canal right through the center of the hut to give the newts and salamanders a way to escape. He did not need to drink, because fish could have swum through the doors and out the windows. However, after a few weeks she gave him the choice of either moving or drowning.

"We are leaving for higher ground," she said. "Anyone who could carry you must carry babes or what food is left."

Despite the exhausted apathy of her tone, Inuyasha could sense the pity in her, and it angered him. Not only did he stand for the first time since the Plateau, placing his bare feet in a stream of putrid water, he also followed Botan to a pile of rice sacks and threw one over his shoulder. The sacks were swollen and loosening their seams.

On the swampy earth, the huts of the village wobbled like loose teeth. Inuyasha followed the priestess, and the few straggling villagers, up into the mountains. Having expended an ocean of energy into carrying and walking, he followed like a despondent pack animal, without seeing or hearing or caring.

When the people around him finally stopped moving, Inuyasha looked around at his surroundings for the first time.

They were at the mouth of a cave.

Inuyasha and the others stood under the gray rock that sheltered them at last from the tiny, implacable hammering of the rain. He laid down his burden and muttered to himself.

"It just had to be a cave."

"What did you expect?" Botan was standing beside him. "A palace?"

Inuyasha did not answer. She could not know his history with such places and he was not at all inclined to explain it. He was silent for a few minutes and continued to look around. He saw the other villagers, people he did not even recognize, huddled against the far wall, with eyes sad and deep-set from looking at rain so much.

"There is no food here," he observed distantly.

"We'll make due." Botan replied, then turned away from him to tend the children, pitiful creatures with watery eyes and swollen bellies.

Twenty-one days after the Plateau, Inuyasha sat as close to the cave mouth as he could without getting wet. The twilight was early, but everyone else was already asleep because there was no real passage of time anyway, and it was better to sleep than to be hungry.

But in spite of everything, it was not in Inuyasha's nature to surrender to such a slow, passive death as starvation. He realized he would have to find food because Botan would never purify him or seal him as he had initially hoped, even if she were able to do so. The villagers were too frightened to even approach him. Naraku had failed to kill him, and all the incredible misfortunes of a long and cursed life had not managed to destroy him.

A strange idea entered his head then: that he might as well be immortal. This was not a pleasant realization. His body destroyed by poison and atrophy and his mind creaking along only by habit, Inuyasha was disgusted and outraged by the idea of immortality, as if the entire notion was conceived just to torture him.

For the first time in months, Inuyasha thought of his brother.

His insomniac heart was razed by the strongest surge of fury since before the Plateau. Sesshoumaru was strong. _He_ could have finished Naraku. He could have prevented all of this. It was all his fault—his damnable and unforgivable arrogance, his soulless apathy.

_It's your fault! Not mine! You're to blame! It's all your fault! It's all your fault!_

His rage twisted inside him like a finger of hot lead. It turned inward and scalded him. Perhaps, in secret silence, he could admit that Sesshoumaru was the stronger brother; there was still no excuse for himself. At last he gave thought to his friends, sifting through his memories just so he could slash jagged valleys in his soul with the vengeance of a masochist.

_That's just too easy._

Inuyasha leapt away from the cave mouth and down the mountain slope. He ran past a blur of trees and through the cutting rain, and into the night.

The next morning Botan found a butchered deer at the mouth of the cave. She and her people did not go hungry again. On most nights Inuyasha stole away in search of the unwary, of poor beasts that were too depressed by the deluge to flee. If anyone lying in the cave heard roars of rage and despair coming from the night hills, they never stirred. If it seemed to them that the morning carcass was mangled excessively, they never mentioned it.

This went on for another month. It was not long before Inuyasha hated his memories as much as himself. In a world suspended in water, he clung to the irrational idea that the rain was washing away his past life. It was for this reason that he still would not recognize Botan, nor connect her with an incident from his past. Sometimes he recalled that she knew his name without asking, but he wasted no time in suffocating the perfidious thought with the thick blanket of senselessness that always covered his mind now.

Botan and her flock were not the only peasants in the area. Other villages had been abandoned, their population fleeing into the hills. Popular intuition got a whiff that something was unusual (besides the ceaseless rain), and some interpreted the sprays of blood on trees and cattails as signs that the rain had loosed an evil from hibernation. These rumors would reach other ears, some that it would have been better not to.

Grateful though they were for the meat, Botan's people believed they would have no need of charity if not for Inuyasha himself. The fact that the rains began with his arrival was not lost on them, and they began to speak these thoughts openly. Their muttering buzzed in Botan's ears until it began to drown out the monotonous drone of the rain.

The priestess had reached the end of her rope. Each night she would wait until Inuyasha left, then she would sit near the mouth of the cave and weep with silent rage. It had rained now for eighty-seven days. She was ready to believe almost any theory, however unfounded or unfair, if it offered the hope of an escape from the hellish, aquatic prison.

She made a plan to talk to Inuyasha and at the very least ask him if he was, to his knowledge, carrying a curse. But when she found him in the darkest corner one late afternoon, she could see that he was senseless with a fever. Always before stone silent, now he was releasing a torrent of amazing, incomprehensible gibberish.

"On the dry and dusty road, the nights we spent apart alone, I need to get back home, to cool, cool rain, I can't sleep and I lie and I think, the nights are hot and black as ink, oh god I need a drink, or cool, cool rain, love, love, love reign over me, rain on me—

"Inuyasha?" Botan interrupted him with a hand on his head.

He ignored her.

"The Beloved is only a visitor. The Bearer is kept by the General. The Saved walks with the Trickster. The Cyclone will discover the Seer. The Wanderer is Reborn and I am Released and I wish that I had said it, said it just once."

"Said what, Inuyasha?" Botan broke in. "For pity's sake, said what?"

He glanced at her, but lowered his head again and continued mumbling.

"No!" Botan pushed his arms aside and shook his shoulders. "No, you're gonna tell me. What is it? What didn't you say?"

For the first time since she found him Inuyasha snarled, and bared his teeth at her; Botan remembered that she was trammeling a wild animal. But the situation was beyond self-concern, and she would not relent.

"Pretend I'm her," she settled on the back of her heels, in front of him. "Pretend I'm her, and say it now."

He jerked his head up to look at her again, a wild hope lighting his eyes. His mouth parted. Her eyes were _so_ clear and determined, the color of almonds and just as hard. He stared at them and wished. _Oh_ to wish, to yearn.

"I'm sorry."

It was not what she had expected, but she supposed he was apologizing for failing to save his friends.

"I'm sorry I was never good enough for you."

Inuyasha lowered his eyes, with an expression of such resignation and despair that they turned from gold to tarnished bronze and Botan wanted to tear out her own heart.

"I liked things the way they were," he went on. "I really was grateful. I was so used to it, but this…this I don't know. I don't know what to do."

Botan's slender hands were still on his shoulders when he began to shake. She looked up again in alarm, fearing he was having seizures from the fever. She realized with a surprising sorrow that he was weeping. She had no choice but to weep herself. Some others stood by, watching, but they dared not intrude.

After some time, Botan could no longer resist.

"Inuyasha, do you not suppose that maybe some of them could be alive somewhere?"

Desperate not to further wound him, she added.

"You're alive, after all, aren't you?"

That night Inuyasha dreamed of the house in the woods again. This time, however, there were no lanterns, no music, and no dancers. The modest sized house stood in the dark with no sign of life in it at all. The house was empty and blacker than the surrounding twilight forest, as black as a cave. It was waiting for him like the gaping mouth of something unnamed from the abyss. Torn and tattered paper waved a ghostly greeting from the windows.

It was going to eat him. Unable to stop himself, he would enter, and never come out. He would be driven mad. The doors would snap closed behind him and snuff out his sanity like a puny flame.

Despite the compulsion to enter the house, his horror planted him in place. He wondered if he would be able to turn around and run, but then his terror was supplanted by confusion and curiosity.

This was either not the same house, or not the same time. He saw now in the dim light of the moon that the house was crumbling. Veins carved in the wooden beams were mute evidence of termites that had been pursuing their destructive work for decades. The frames of windows and doors were lined with a saffron colored moss. In corners, cloudy cobwebs billowed in the warm air. He walked closer and, above the door, he saw a small and faded crescent moon painted in gold.

Without reason he expected to find Kikyou, in some form, hiding inside. She would rush from some dark corner, reach for him with arms rotting in death, and finally grab his soul away for good. Or maybe it would be Kagome. Perhaps it didn't matter.

_It doesn't matter because they're both dead._

Gritting his teeth and shoving that treacherous thought aside, Inuyasha clenched his teeth and entered the decaying house.

In the center of it he found a high bier, covered in vines, dead leaves, and indigo bellflowers. The vines were interwoven with strands of silver-white hair. For one horrific moment, he believed someone was showing this to him to mock his assumption of immortality.

But the one lying in the forgotten tomb was the wrong son. His face was as still as a summer afternoon, and as expressionless as it had been in life.

Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped open. Inuyasha was not frightened, feeling as though he had expected it. Without words he understood the instructions in his brother's eyes and, wrapped in the soft and fuzzy logic of dreams, he left Sesshoumaru's side to look through a decrepit window at a bright red star, set low on the western horizon.

"_What did you expect? You're still alive, aren't you?"_

He spun around to catch the source of the voice, but the room was empty—no vines, no flowers, no bier. But he heard it again in the breeze that ghosted through the broken house and there could be no denying that it was Kagome's voice.

"Oh, Inuyasha," came the wistful sigh.

Inuyasha crawled out of the dream. Hours remained before dawn would break, and the darkness made it difficult to realize he was no longer in the scary house by the woods, but in the cave with Botan's villagers. To regain his senses, he walked out into the night, thinking the familiar site of stars would plant his feet in the waking world.

Of course, he had forgotten the rain. Most of the sky was clouded, almost as dark and as close as the roof of the cave had been. But as he stood transfixed by his surreal consciousness and vertigo, the rain lessened to a slight drizzle. A new break in the clouds revealed the night sky above the western horizon, and the sight filled him with elation.

Then he noticed the tiny red point, set low and bright.

It had rained for three months, one week, and two days. In that moment, it was as if someone cut off the supply in one stroke. There was no rain again for a year.

The next morning Inuyasha placed a deer and a brace of hares at Botan's feet. They stood on jagged slopes outside the cave, surrounded by a forest of people with their faces upturned, stunned in place by the incredible sun.

"Dry this out," he said to her. "Make it last 'til you can find your own food."

"You're leaving, then." It was not a question.

"Yeah, I'm heading back east. Keep to the hills until the water drains from the valleys. You should be okay now."

"East?"

"When things fall apart, go back to the beginning."

Inuyasha turned and gazed in that direction, already yearning to be off, to shake free three months worth of tight cobwebs around his body and in his head. He looked down at his hands, noting with satisfaction that most of the blood and grime had washed away.

Botan gazed at him.

"Do you know me now?" she asked.

Inuyasha looked surprised, and then relieved, like a person remembering where he had left something important.

"Oh, that's right. Yes, I do."

"Good luck to you then," she said. "I hope you find something. Make sure you keep moving, the world will not survive another flood."

Inuyasha looked at her in surprise, but her gaze was unwavering. Then her face broke in a broad grin.

"Get out of here," she laughed. "Stupid hanyou."

Inuyasha dashed away, his feet only grazing the rocks. Halfway down the slop he called back.

"Try not to get yourself killed, sorry excuse for a priestess!"

Botan thought she heard a faint "Thanks!" ghosting back, but could not be sure she had not imagined it.

***

[End of Chapter 9]

[Next chapter: Shippou and Kagura]


	10. Shippou and Kagura

**Author's notes:**

Another chapter of abject misery. We have two more to go after this one (remember poor Kikyou and Kohaku, left back at that river in chapter 3?), and then things will start to look up again for our luckless cast.

If you should find errors or typos—missing particles, "the" instead of "he", things that look like a mistake that wasn't fixed—please let me know in the comments section! I do not have a beta for this and I would really appreciate it! This goes for all chapters past and future.

Thanks,

Lalieth

**The Edge of Resistance**

Book One: The Dreaming World

**Chapter 10: Shippou and Kagura**

_Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for a time it did me._

_There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. –Herman Melville_

***

He always knew it would end this way.

When the exploding force unleashed on the plateau, Shippou's very nature forced him to transform into his soft balloon shape. He could have landed without injury, though some distance away, but for the confusion and terror that smashed his mind like glass. He returned to his normal form while still in the air. Shippou's transformations had lessened his velocity, but nonetheless his collision with the mountain's sheer face was enough to render him senseless.

When he regained awareness moments later, his right arm was wedged under rocks dislodged by the detonation. In a frenzy, he struggled with it in vain until his panic tripped some automatic switch again and he transformed. In his current condition he could not hold the false form for long and, once returned to his natural state, he plummeted to the ground.

Even as he plunged towards the earth, Shippou realized with the clarity of death how predictable this finale had always been.

---

The darkness was so great and unyielding that Kagura could not be certain that she had opened her eyes at all. There was a crushing weight on her back and a general ache covered her body. She assumed that she was in the midst of a torture devised by her master, and she did not remember her visit to the Hyouden, or Inuyasha and Kagome, until she tried to move her right arm. The limb felt twisted behind her in an awkward position and all she got for her effort to pull on it was a sharp pain that shot to her shoulder like lightning. In answer to the sting, images of the young, desperate priestess—of dust, poison, and calamity—flew through her mind in a bright flash. A sudden and dark dread engulfed her and, in unthinking panic, she tried to get on her feet.

Her fiercest exertions were useless and she soon realized with a fresh horror that she was so much weaker than she should be, weak beyond reason. Something was wrong. Kagura was now coherent enough to realize that she was in the mud with a tree on her back. As a demon, she should have been capable of mustering the strength to lift the weight herself, but she could not even summon the wind to aid her. After a few minutes of frustrating and exhausting labor, she collapsed again in surrender.

Kagura lay in the chilled filth, surrounded by dark wilderness, thinking of Kagome. That she herself lived while Kagome was in all probability dead, struck Kagura as an immense absurdity, a whimsical trick of fickle Fate. She almost wanted to laugh, but for the implacable weight of that damned tree. She watched the viscous water that trickled down through leaves and limbs. A foul mixture of dirt, ash and miasma continued to fall as rain, and it burned her eyes and throat.

This she thought odd, because his poison had never bothered her before.

Had Kagome been at all successful? If Naraku still had Kagura's heart, would she not be dead by now? Wouldn't he find her? Was he just toying with her? Was her heart now lost in the wilderness?

_Why_ _did she do that?_

Kagura never considered that Naraku could be dead. She believed in his endless inevitability with an intransigence against which there was no appeal.

None of it mattered anyway so long as she lay trapped alone in the toxic dark. Perhaps she could get free if she could just move enough to crawl on her belly.

This last exertion cost her. Her shoulder shrieked in protest and the back of her skull became heavy and numb. A gloom filled her mind, as though someone had tipped an ink well behind her eyes. Kagura lost consciousness.

---

Shippou lurched to his feet, commanding a huge effort to stay upright and to keep his stomach contents on the inside. A fiery taste burned his tongue, and he spat out a fetid mixture of bile, rainwater and miasma.

Through bleary and burning eyes, he tried to assess his surroundings, but he could see only a confusion of uprooted trees with mangled branches, veiled in the dusty and toxic downpour. He tried testing the air, but the rain made it impossible to smell anything but Naraku. As he stumbled over rocks and tree trunks, Shippou wondered if Naraku had survived the explosion. He surmised that chances were good that he had.

Covering ground was difficult because branches often gave way under his feet, causing him to trip and stumble, scraping his skin and tearing his already ruined clothing. He considered transforming into a hawk, but the memory of Kagome calling it "going bird" caused such an ache in his chest that he abandoned the idea at once. He heard her laughter in his mind and his mind answered.

_You know, that's a dead person laughing._

_Stop it. STOP. IT._

He staggered along on bloodied feet for what felt like hours, not knowing where he was, not trying to go in any particular direction. He only felt a pressing need to keep moving, to stay on his feet. He climbed over a pile of contorted trees and jumped to a smooth boulder.

Disguised as a stable surface, in truth the stone was poised, in precarious balance, on a craggy precipice. As soon as he landed on it, the boulder surrendered at last to all the trauma and tumult of the day. Shippou flew forwarded, tumbling over another ledge, and landing on his knees and elbows.

He was too tired to transform anymore, too broken to think, too overthrown to care. Shippou collapsed in the mud. He bled, and he cried.

The surprise of it all hurt at least as much as his battered and poisoned body. It was impossible, unthinkable, that only this morning he had lain on green grass next to Kagome, smiling, as they reveled in the baking sun.

Now it was as though that sun had never existed. All the light, warmth, and love of the world was now gone; all of it ripped away and shredded into bits of unrecognizable pictures and scraps of unimportant paper.

Shredded by the claws of a stupid, stubborn half-demon. All those days spent on the dry and dusty roads, all those nights spent in the cold, clear silence. What was it all for anyway? What had it gotten them?

His unthinking compulsion to keep moving took over again, and Shippou went forward in blindness, half walking, half crawling. He tried to move away from the plateau, without being sure where it even was, while avoiding going back into the treacherous slopes.

He had no more luck with this strategy then he had had with the hills. The downpour was so polluted that the ground became a slick slime. It was not long before a tiny, hastening stream caught hold of him and dragged him on his belly for several yards over rocks and wreckage. When he stopped, he got to his feet and spat out an amazing quantity of vile water.

Then a patch of odd color drew his eyes, almost invisible through the shroud of rain and the tangle of tree trunks and branches.

It was soon easy to see that it was a person trapped beneath a demolished tree. As Shippou came closer, he saw that it was not Kagome (as he most hoped), or Sango, Kirara, Miroku, or Inuyasha. It was Kagura.

The demoness was lying on her face in the mud.

Anger and hatred overwhelmed him. He was sure he would never understand what had made Kagome take it in her head to prevent Kagura's death, but the sight of the demoness filled him with unbearable rancor. She appeared to be dead, or at least unaware of his presence, and so he almost turned away to continue his search for his friends. He did not, after all, have time to waste on virulence.

"_I can't stand that sorceress," Shippou spat after one of the many occasions Kagura escaped from them, leaving behind only her spiteful laughter._

"_It doesn't do any good," Kagome said. "She is the way Naraku made her, and I don't even think she wants to do his work. But what choice does she have? She's the same as Kohaku."_

"_It isn't the same at all!" Inuyasha argued. "Kohaku was an innocent human boy once. Kagura is made _from _Naraku."_

"_But she can't help how she was born. You can't blame her. That's no different than how Sesshoumaru treats you."_

"_She is a piece of Naraku, our enemy," Inuyasha repeated stubbornly. "She is our enemy."_

"_You should worry less about her and more about Naraku. And maybe we could consider Kagura's plight. If she were freed of Naraku, she might be a powerful ally."_

"_Don't be stupid!" Inuyasha retorted. "She would kill you just as soon as you turned your back. And why should we save her? If anyone, we should save Kohaku."_

"_The time may come when there is little choice," Kagome added. _

They had said no more on the matter back then, but now, in his lonely agony, Shippou remembered Kohaku. Kohaku was dead, and now Kagura could be as well. Then neither of Kagome's hopes would come to bear. In the end, the only one who would win would be Naraku. Shippou did not always understand Kagome's decisions, but in a vivid epiphany he realized that he did not need to. He accepted then, amongst the towering ruin and despair in which he stood, that she understood them.

He clambered over the wreckage of debris, trying to get a better look at his sometime enemy.

"Kagura!" he called. "Can you hear me? Say something!"

There was no answer, and he feared she was indeed dead.

Shippou struggled with the debris, almost weeping with exhaustion and desperation. At last, his hazy brain realized that his efforts were pointless; he could transform into something more useful.

As a gigantic ogre, Shippou was as hideous as any monster, but as strong as a titan. He heaved the debris off the wind sorceress. He flung aside the tangled debris but the slimy, saturated ground was treacherous, and the swing of his weight knocked him off his feet again. His normal shape returned and he landed flat on his face. He lifted his shoulders with a colossal effort, and crawled forward to hover over the unconscious demoness.

Poisonous sludge covered her ashen face. She did not appear to be breathing. Without knowing why, Shippou tried to mop away the muck and clear the soaked and stringy hair from her face. She seemed so weak and helpless now, a shadow of the terrible wind sorceress she had been. She was so frail and wan that, for a moment, he thought maybe he had been mistaken. Perhaps he had really found Sango or Kagome after all.

He crushed the thought with brutal callousness. There was no point in being stupid. Kagura's kimono, her jade earrings, the shape of ears, all gave her away.

Shippou peered down at her and then tried to clear his own eyes. When he did, he felt the sting of miasma. As if the thought brought it all back to him, he remembered his burning lungs, his scorching mouth, and his screaming muscles. They had to get away from the foul rain.

"Kagura!" he shook her. "Kagura! Get up!"

Kagura did not stir. He was too tired to lift her, and the thought of transforming again made his bones shudder with exhaustion. It was impossible. He pressed his ear against her, trying to hear a heartbeat, but then he remembered.

_Wherever it is, it's not here._

He tried to detect her breathing, or any other sign of life, but she remained motionless and colorless.

Shippou shook with exhaustion, but even more with rage.

Was this it then? Was this all there was to it? Forget about his love; forget the grief and horror of that. Couldn't he even save a wretched enemy? Was even that still too much to ask?

Reaching madness in his shock, exhaustion, and pain, he cried brokenly.

"Please," he sobbed. "Please oh please don't do this to me."

He raised his eyes to the weeping sky. No one answered.

Shippou tried to clear his eyes again and noticed his hands were red. Some of it was blood, but most of it was the dye from Kagura's kimono. The sickened downpour had leached it out. The crimson color reminded him of someone else, and he choked on his rage again.

"How could you? How _could_ you?" he shouted with a raw and inflamed throat. "Damn you!"

He started to beat his fists on Kagura's chest. He was no longer trying to rouse her, having given her up for dead. A soaring fury maddened him.

"I hate you! I hate you! Curse you forever!"

All he had gotten out of all of this was dying alone.

He was startled when, over his insane raging, he heard a strange new noise. On the last blow of his fists against her chest, Kagura let out a weak, gurgling cough. He stopped and stared at her.

Kagura opened her eyes and saw a charcoal sky. She was no longer under the tree, but she still felt like her body was on fire.

The rain was hitting her face and she tried to turn away, but the slightest movement resulted in a crushing pain at the base of her skull and made her stomach heave. With trembling hands, she tried to cover her eyes. Then she saw him.

One of Inuyasha's companions, the kitsune—she could not recall his name—was staring down at her. He was crusted with blood and filth and his eyes were red and haunted. Kagura took ragged, shuddering breaths and remained motionless, not knowing what to do next, or if she could even trust her own senses. She could still feel the poison, agonizing through her body like tiny flecks of glass in her veins.

_So I'm dying then, what else is new?_

She felt a sudden resentment, not at her impending demise, but at the brat who would not let her die in peace.

"Go away."

He looked surprised, but then his eyes hardened.

"Get up," he answered.

Kagura did not respond. She felt an irrational and stubborn need to preserve some quiet dignity before her death.

"GET UP!"

Kagura tried to shift away from him again, annoyed.

"I said go away." It hurt to crack open her mouth, and her voice came out in a pathetic quiver.

Shippou crawled over her and seized two handfuls of her hair, holding her head between his hands. Kagura cried out.

"Now you listen to me!" he shouted. "Kagome is dead! Do you hear me? She is _fucking_ dead! And you ARE getting up!"

For a moment, Kagura felt stricken and sick. For the first time in her life it seemed to her that she was hearing real despair, and its blackness was seeping through her like smoke through a veil. She shuddered and let it pass, and set her soul back in its grim place.

"What makes you think I care?"

"I didn't ask if you did. I just said you are getting up."

With that, Shippou raised himself and stood with the firm resolution of hatred. Though he swayed on his feet from exhaustion, injuries, and the assault of poison, he took her hands in a firm grasp and yanked her to her feet.

Kagura shrieked as he pulled on the injured arm. Nonetheless, she ended up on her feet. She started to say something, but nothing came out. It seemed to her that she should be feeling something or doing something, or maybe going somewhere, but her mind was a broken plane of orange and blue fuzz that could not connect any of those points together anymore.

She mumbled slow and stupid words, through a haze of pain and poison, as she stood hunched over and clutching her shoulder. "Okay…so now what?"

"I…_we_ must get away…away from here."

The boy was almost as incoherent as she was. He seemed to be going in and out of sanity. Kagura even started to reach out her hand to him, but then remembered she shouldn't or couldn't or wouldn't because…

But then it was gone again.

"Is this what it's like to die?"

Shippou did not answer. He put his hand on her shoulder and pointed. Her gaze followed his finger.

"What?"

"Go. Go that way."

They trekked across the ruined woods and venomous streams, stumbling and shuffling in darkness. Nothing but slight breezes, the occasional force of water released from the flooded hills, and their inability to comprehend death pushed them on.

There was no way to keep track of the passage of time. The endless rain veiled the course of sun and moon and stars. They did not bother to sleep or to eat. Worse still, the odd pair of demons went in and out of feverish lunacy, their bodies and minds lashed with torture and despair. At various times, they shared in a kind of communal mania, feeding off the other's incomprehensible ravings. On other occasions, one would shuffle about, muttering incomprehensible gibberish at unseen phantoms, while the other looked on with fear and dread.

At some point in their wanderings, Kagura became aware that something was stabbing and burning her in the ribs. She reached into her kimono and her fingers encountered something hard and unnatural. It was her fan. She pulled it out and realized that it was the source of the discomfort. It had left a rod-shaped welt across her breast and now it was throbbing in her hand. Looking at it made her stomach churn with a deep revulsion. Kagura broke the hateful thing over her knee and cast aside its remains.

The poison weakened, and the air underwent a slow transformation to something breathable again. The rain continued.

They had no idea that they had wandered in larger and larger circles for more than a month, before finding a cave somewhere south of the plateau. It was no more than a crease in the mountain, but it provided some relief from the ceaseless rain.

Kagura awoke one day (there was no way to know what time it was), to find her throat and eyes swollen with weeping. She was hoarse, and her lips cracked and bled when she licked them. Nonetheless, she was able to sit upright, and to take in her surroundings without the taint and swirl of madness.

Shippou, however, seemed worse than ever. He was crouched in the most narrow part of the cave, with his arms above his head, as if he was all that kept the mountain from crushing them. Without knowing what she would say, Kagura stumbled toward him. When he sensed her, he started mumbling an unbroken string of bizarre ramblings.

"On the dry and dusty road, the nights we spent apart alone, I need to get back home, to cool, cool rain, I can't sleep and I lie and I think, the nights are hot and black as ink, oh god I need a drink, or cool, cool rain, love, love, love reign over me, rain on me. Where is the Wanderer? She seeks the Beloved at the General's house. I have saved the Saved. The Cursed lies with the Faithful. The Solitary lies with the Lucky. The Tempered is keeping the Bearer. The Released is alone, alone!"

Thus it went on and on. Kagura's strength was returning, and she accepted with disappointment that she was probably not dying. However, upon hearing the kitsune's ravings she gave him up for dead. She decided to wait it out, if only for an utter lack of anything else to do. It never occurred to her to leave.

But that night Shippou slept a deep and profound sleep, and when the grey dawn was still indistinguishable from the night, he opened his eyes and sat upright. He drew his knees up to his face and rested his chin. Kagura watched him all the while, but he did not speak. For days they sat in silence, enclosed on all sides by mountain and a curtain of rain.

Finally, Shippou despaired that the rain would ever end, which is what he had been waiting for once he had shaken the fever and regained his senses. He rose to his feet without a word and went to the mouth of the cave. Kagura, who had grown accustomed to silence and inactivity, was startled, and she followed him.

"Where are you going?"

"What do you care?" Shippou did not turn around. "Why are you still here anyway?"

Kagura did not know an answer.

Shippou walked out to the rocky edge, transformed into a hawk, and circled higher and higher in the sky. Kagura watched him until he was just a speck in the distance, almost impossible to see through the rainy veil.

_So I'm alone again, what else is new?_

Kagura debated with herself what action she should take next. Should she look for her heart? What if that led her back to Naraku? What if he found her? Maybe she could find allies. But where? It seemed to her that Naraku had succeeding in destroying or at least scattering most of his enemies.

As she was exploring her options, still standing near the cave opening, she nearly jumped out of her skin when Shippou landed right in front of her.

"I saw a house!" he announced in a loud voice.

"What?"

"A house. There's a house to the south. Even through the rain, I could see it clear as day. I'm going towards it."

"Why?"

"Because my friends would go that way too. If Sango is still alive, she might have Kirara, and she might have seen the house. She would have gone there looking for shelter. Maybe she even had Miroku or Inuyasha with her. If I go that way, I might pick up their trail."

"I heard a lot of 'mights' and 'maybes' in there."

Shippou looked away, to the distance. "Yes," he admitted, "but we have no choice."

"_We?_" Kagura jumped to her feet.

Shippou looked at her in surprise. "That's right. I'm not leaving you here to die after all we've gone through to save you."

Kagura thought to reply how she never asked Kagome to do anything, that Kagome had been a fool to throw her life away, that none of mattered anyway because she was Kagura, and she didn't need or owe anybody.

But the words stuck in her throat like clumps of wet sand.

"And you _will_ die," he went on, "if I leave you here. Why don't you try flying?"

Kagura realized with a start that it had never occurred to her to fly since that terrible day. She went to the edge of the mountain's rock face and raised her hand in a gesture that was so familiar that it was automatic to her.

Nothing happened. There was no answering rush of air, no sensation of lifting. She turned around and Shippou was looking at her with a knowing expression.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Naraku just made you the way you are, and all your powers came from him. Now that your ties to him are severed, they're gone."

Kagura tried again, and again, and again. In frustration, she reached for her fan and then remembered it was gone and why. She felt the first twinges of panic in her chest.

The kitsune was right! If left alone, it would only be a matter of time before Naraku, or any other demon, would find her in this helpless state. She would be as defenseless as a kitten.

Shippou summarized the situation in one sentence.

"I'm not strong enough yet to carry you, so we'll have to walk."

Kagura, choked by rage, confusion, and fear, followed him in mute numbness.

As they walked, jumped, climbed, and slid down the slops of the mountain, Shippou tried to reassure her, if only a little bit. "Don't worry, they may come back. My guess is that you never had to think about your powers before. If you work on it, who knows?"

_Have you ever wondered what you could accomplish if you pushed yourself, Shippou?_

Kagura did not feel much better.

They walked for days. It was hard to be sure how long because they did not really need to sleep and there was little distinction between the nights and the gloomy, overcast days. As they traveled through the soggy and swampy hills, they passed villages devastated by the deluge. No one stopped them or asked them any questions.

One evening they came across a shelf of slate that jutted over a swollen, mountain stream. Shippou decided they would take the chance to dry out. There was nothing that could be burned, so the kitsune piled together some rocks, the size of his fists, and created a blue flame on top that gave off an eerie light.

"I can keep that going for a while, anyway."

Kagura sat under the ledge, as far out of the rain as she could.

"How long do you think it's been?" he asked her.

"I don't know. More than a few weeks. Less than a few months."

The mention of "months" reminded Shippou of "new moons" and other things about which he preferred not to think. He was silent for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Kagura opened her eyes to see her unforeseen companion crouched before the pile of stones, waving his arm over it repeatedly.

"Trying to get the fire going again?" she asked in a disinterested tone. "All the water in the air is probably putting it out."

"No, I was trying to create one of my acorns."

Kagura looked up in alarm. "Have you lost your powers?"

"You can't lose what you never had."

Then he vanished in a squeaky little puff.

Kagura looked around, puzzled. "Kitsune?" she called.

"Demoness?" he answered pertly.

Kagura turned around. He was sitting on the lowest branch of a spreading oak some twelve yards away from the outcrop, looking serene and for all the world as though he had been there all along. A small, furtive movement caught Kagura's eye, and she noticed several Shippou clones, one by one popping into oblivion with little puffs of smoke.

"Self-replicating is pretty standard," he said by way of explanation. "Kid's stuff, really. But usually, you can't make them do anything except run around all over the place. Least I can't. I thought it might be neat if I could."

"Demon exercises," she smirked. "I'm impressed."

Shippou doubted she meant that.

"At least I can have a conversation while I'm using them, for a minute or two." Then he gave her a direct look. "It wouldn't hurt you to think about practicing you own skills. If my instincts are right, we haven't seen the last of trouble."

Kagura scoffed. "Your instincts!" she mocked. "They've served you so well until now. If our enemy decides to come after us, not all the replications in the world will save you."

Shippou's eyes hardened. "Okay, fine! So why don't you just sit here and wait for him?"

Kagura did not have an answer, and they did not speak about it again that day.

It was only a few days later. Kagura was walking behind Shippou, as she always did, and she placed her hand on a tree trunk for support. When she took her hand away, it was both wet and sticky. There was sap on her palm.

Kagura shuddered, as memories of things she had buried in her mind came back to her with the lash of a dragon's tail. Then she let out a gasp.

Shippou turned in anxiety. "What is it?"

"Oh no," Kagura's voice was sick. "I hope I'm wrong."

"What?"

"Can you transform again? Can you go up and take another look at that house?"

"Why?"

"I want you to tell me what it looks like," she told him. "Go up and take another look at it, then come back and describe it to me. It's important."

Shippou looked annoyed, but he crouched, spread his arms and was in the air before Kagura really had the chance to see the transformation.

After about five minutes, he landed and gave her a thorough description of the house that was still many miles away.

"I was afraid of this," she shook her head.

"What is it?" he asked. "Do you know it?"

"That place is called the Hyouden. Or rather, those lands are called the Hyouden. It is where Sesshoumaru lives."

Shippou gaped at her in amazement.

"I'm not sure if you can really say he lives there though. He's hardly ever actually there."

Shippou continued to stare at her for a moment or two. Then his eyes hardened, and he turned and began walking again.

"Where are you going now?" Kagura walked after him.

"Nothing's changed."

"Have you lost your mind?" Kagura demanded. "Do not be a fool and expect one such as him to lift a finger for you! He will more likely kill us, if the idea doesn't bore him too much. We would be like insects to him."

"So?"

"_So?_ What the hell do you mean, SO?"

Shippou stopped and turned. He walked right up to Kagura until their noses were mere inches apart.

"If Sesshoumaru is so strong, why hasn't he done anything about Naraku? Why, as far as I can tell, has he never done anything about anything?"

"Because he has not gotten around to it yet. Sesshoumaru does not think about time the way the rest of us do."

"Is that right?" Shippou peered at her. "How is it that you know so much about him?"

Kagura returned his gaze with a cool expression, but did not answer.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway." Shippou turned and walked on again. "If what you say is true, then perhaps Sesshoumaru will have an explanation."

Kagura was thunderstruck. "Sesshoumaru? _Explain?_"

"Look, you can hang out in these soggy mountains for the next few centuries if you want to. I'm going to that house."

Kagura had to run to keep up with him.

He turned around again. "So is that your answer? Are we going to do things this way? Are we going to that house, even if it means death, because it's better than lying down to die or waiting for that devil to find us?"

Kagura was taken aback by the intensity of the young demon's voice and expression. She remembered the last time she had seen Kagome, and she felt a chill that she took for a premonition.

Kagura surrendered at last to the undeniable evidence of her new existence

"That's how it is," she answered, trying to sound casual, trying to make it seem as though it was the most reasonable thing in the world, as though it were only natural, not at all unexpected and not at all the effect of her fear of solitude.

Shippou contemplated her face, assessing whether or not she meant it.

But just then the rain, which they had come to accept like a white noise, began to lessen to a faint drizzle. The silence was shocking. The sky above broke into patches of dreary, tattered clouds, as if someone had just torn the gray fabric apart. They stood still and silent, eyes glinting with stars and unshed tears.

"Oh wow," Shippou took a deep breath, feeling as if he had not breathed in all the time since the Plateau. "It's actually stopping. I got so used to it. I wonder how long we were wandering in the rain."

They did not notice the tiny, but very bright, red star that was winking at them from the western horizon.

"Let's go, Kagura. His Imperial Indifference is waiting for us."

***

[End of Chapter 10]

[Next chapter: Miroku and Sango]


	11. Miroku and Sango

**Author's notes: **I'm trying to publish one chapter a week, but this one was a little late. It was particularily difficult and I'm not sure if I'm happy with it even now, but...here it is.

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World **

**Chapter Eleven: Miroku and Sango**

_I did my best, it wasn't much  
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch  
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you  
And even though it all went wrong  
I'll stand before the Lord of Song  
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah_

_-Leonard Cohen_

***

It was said that the man dressed as a monk and the woman dressed as a demon slayer were found dead in the wilderness that hugged the edge of the village, not long after the terrible mountain explosion that had set off an earthquake. Though anyone could tell that the strangers had been young and strong in life, venerable elders and emphatic farmers swore on all their fortunes that they had been found dead, irrefutably dead, that they had only been carried to the village for burial to prevent the attraction of curses or carrion creatures.

The villagers intended to place the bodies on a bed of bamboo covered with lilies, as was their custom. But the only known lilies grew in a meadow on the other side of a gray swamp, and the endless rain made all roads to them impassable. As an alternative, they used the billowing, blue bellflowers that grew on the cliffs on the south side of their settlement. They gathered so many bellflowers that they covered not only the bamboo planks, but also the entire floor of the thatched hut that housed the unknown corpses.

The strangers returned to life without warning as soon as they touched the bed of blooms. The woman sighed and rolled towards the man and the man extended his hand to cover that of the woman. Though they became still as death again immediately, this was enough to cause some of the women in attendance to faint and some of the curious children to run screaming from the hut, with downy petals stuck in their sandals and trailing a feathery, blue dust behind them.

The commotion of panic brought everyone running, and they arrived at the hut door to find a suffocating atmosphere of bellflowers and exasperation. No one knew what to do. The strangers were alive, but lying on a bed for the departed. Should they be moved?

Dissension arose over this idea. An old man with a knotted walking stick rapped it on the cold stones of the hearth until everyone fell silent.

"What if this bed's what woke 'em?" he demanded.

"Bellflowers aren't used for that!" shouted some of the more impudent young people.

"But you don't know, do ya?" he crackled a toothless grin. "When you put 'em there, they stirred like they was living, so what do you do?"

Fearful silence.

"You leave 'em there course!" the old man shouted with impatience. Then he waved his stick in the air above his head. "Gods above! People got no sense!"

Because there was nothing else to do, they decided to indeed leave them there. Many among them were afraid that further interference would bring terrible luck upon them. Therefore, they stood helpless around the unfortunate strangers and stared in bewilderment, each mentally shuffling though his or her own experiences.

They saw the terrible wounds, scratched their heads, and exclaimed, "How can they be alive? It's impossible!"

They saw the black marks of an evil poison that covered them like lash wounds, and pointed to serpent streams of the contamination in their blood, and they said, "Surely, if they live, it's a miracle!"

The stirring of the dead was not the last wonder. After a few days, a rosy color return to their cheeks, and the two took on a peaceful look. By this time, word had spread that two individuals of mysterious background had fallen under the protection of the most virtuous of deities, and then were entrusted to the sole care of this remote village.

After seven days, the villagers realized that the flower petals did not wilt, but were as soft and fresh as the day they bloomed. They also seemed to multiply on their own and little blue petals turned up everywhere—in bowls of rice, sake cups, cattle feed, even trunks of clothes that had not been opened since before the strangers came.

The scholars and skeptics who came to view the miracles laughed at the ignorance and superstitions of the villagers. They said that finding two half-dead individuals in the wilderness was unusual but not unheard of, and that flower petals did not meet the prerequisites for miracles. After a while, they stopped coming altogether. Everyone stopped coming, because the rains transformed even the best of roads into channels of mud. Parents piled stones under their children to make certain that they did not drown in their sleep. People were already abandoning villages in the most unfortunate locations, and the chief of this little spot on the map knew it would not be long before he would have to order his people to forsake their homes.

A month had passed since they had found the strangers and the rains had begun. Some in the village now declared in the open that the strangers had brought a curse with them, and that they should have been left where they had been found. The headman stood outside the hut that housed the nameless miracles. He stared into the doorway for a long time. It was not in his nature to turn anyone out, least of all the helpless. There could be no doubt that these two people had suffered a great calamity. However, their calamity grew less as his own impending one grew greater, and he began to consider his options.

He was not a very tall man, not thin nor heavy, not handsome nor loathsome in appearance. There was indeed nothing remarkable about his plain, round face and unadorned clothes. He kept himself carelessly, allowing the locks of his hair to hang to his shoulders and wearing his short haori in a loose, open fashion. He walked as though he bore a great weight with ease, giving the impression of a placid beast of burden. His position came not from fine possessions or a princely appearance, but from his skill and experience in battle, as evidenced by the ugly white and red scars that marked him here and there on the arms and legs and heaven knows where else. As he stood outside the hut with his arms crossed and his plain face set in a grim expression, he began to consider that generals did not always make the best caretakers.

The priestess would be troublesome. Even if _he _accepted the fact that the death of her charges was necessary for everyone else to live, he knew she would never agree to it. He even began to work out the conversation in his head, imagining her indignant, self-righteous responses to his impeccable logic. He even added the part where his wife and the other men in the village laughed at him and scorned his weakness. They already teased him every time he brought a cup of sake to his lips. They would say right to his face "are you sure you should drink that? Shouldn't you ask your priestess first?"

And then there were other things, things that floated in the air between the two of them like demonic lightening bolts that at any time could kill one or both of them if they strayed, things that tortured the poor man's soul and withered his heart.

In the hut, the condition of the strangers had not changed. The priestess and her assistant, a plump little girl of no more than twelve whom everyone called Suzi, carried out their duties with dedication, despite the growing atmosphere of anxiety and fear. The headmaster always believed he was the only one who suffered, but in reality, Suzi and the priestess were well aware of the wind of popular sentiment.

The priestess herself would be called young in Kagome's time, but not so much in her own, even though she was by far the shortest woman in the village, being often mistaken for a child from even a small distance. She kept her own clothes and hair in a rigorous, severe way, and her eyes were like tiny, black gems that seemed to never be still.

With or without popular sentiment, there could be no doubt that disaster was looming. Suzi was not so young that she was unaware of it. Food was scarce. Nothing could be kept dry in storage, and livestock had all but disappeared, presumed to have drowned or run away. A month had passed and though the terrible rains sometimes lessened for brief periods, they had not ceased. As the priestess stood silently rehearsing her responses to what she knew the headman would say, Suzi tended the strangers and cleansed their wounds, wondering how they could ever be moved, and wishing that the repetitive movement of her hand, from the bowls to the bandages to the blankets, would never end.

"On the dry and dusty road."

Suzi froze. Her rhythmic way of forgetting the calamity was shattered.

"What did you say?" the priestess turned to address her assistant.

But Suzi could not bring herself to move, staring with fright at the unconscious strangers.

"Momiji-sama!" she cried at last, pointing a trembling finger at the unknown woman.

"Are you saying that this woman spoke?" the priestess demanded, incredulous.

"The nights we spent apart alone." The man raised his left hand and it fell across his face.

This time there could be no doubt. Suzi believed she was witnessing the resurrection of the dead.

"Suzi-chan," the priestess whispered. "Go. Fetch the headman. Quickly now."

Since the headman had been waiting outside, trying to gather some courage and dignity, he was standing in the hut in less than a minute. Suzi backed away from him, but the headman did not acknowledge her presence.

"Before you say anything, Momiji-san, I was on my way to tell you that the village will have be moved. We cannot stay here and wait to drown."

"Yes, this is wisdom, Sonchou-sama. I will prepare to move the patients."

Kyotou's face tightened.

"I do not believe that—" he started, but was cut off.

"I need to get back home." A low mumble came from the bed.

The headman stared at the "patients" in disbelief.

"Do you not see?" Momiji seized his surprise as an advantage. "The gods have charged us with a serious duty, and we are performing it well."

Kyotou had remained at the foot of the makeshift bed, staring at the strangers in wonder, but at Momiji's last words he remembered where he was and he threw his hands up in disgust and frustration.

"Does it not occur to _you_, Momiji-san, that the duty we are performing very well is evil? If it was a good task, should not their improvement be ours also? But look! The sky still weeps Momiji-san, the people are still hungry!"

After a few minutes of frustrated silence, the headman sighed and shook his head.

"We must move into the mountains, and I cannot spare men to carry these strangers. You must leave them."

Suzi knew that Momiji, for all her gall, recognized authority when she heard it. She was silent again, for a moment.

"I see our ways must be parted."

The headman looked up in surprise, and Suzi held her breath.

"You cannot mean—" he started.

Momiji bowed low. "Kyotou-kun, thank you for all that you've done for me. I do not deserve it. Nevertheless, you must follow your path as headman and I must follow my duty as well. Perhaps our paths will cross again. I hope so."

Shocked by the sudden display of intimacy, the young girl drew as close to the opposite wall as possible. Momiji and Kyotou did not notice her. Kyotou seemed frozen with a fear that Suzi did not understand. Finally, he spoke again.

"Momiji-kun," he said. "I will not leave you here to die."

"I will not die," she answered in a calm, matter-of-fact tone.

"Leave us!" the headman barked with such sudden sharpness that Suzi fled from the hut without looking back.

The headman emerged alone five, maybe ten minutes later, and went immediately to the nearest home. He said nothing to Suzi as he passed, but he stood for a moment on the threshold and looked back, and she heard him mutter in a bitter tone.

"It's _always_ got to be sacrificed."

Suzi watched him entered the other hut before she returned to her mistress.

"Suzi-chan," Momiji-sama looked tired and wan. "Come here."

They stood together at the foot of the makeshift bed with their feet in an inch or more or mud, caked with blue flower petals. The bed, raised on bricks that wobbled on the loose earth, waved like the deck of a boat.

"You must go, Suzi-chan, you must go with the headman."

Suzi gasped. "My lady, you cannot mean it! You will be here all alone!"

Momiji kissed her forehead. "Be well, my child, remember what I've taught you. You must go with the headman and serve him."

Suzi's face broke into a sob. "You cannot mean it," she repeated. "It cannot be so!"

"Here." Momiji handed the child a small leather satchel. "This is all that I can spare. You know how to use them."

"I…I…I am…I am too small!" Suzi blubbered through her grimy tears.

"Suzume-sama!" Momiji took hold of the girl's chin. Suzi bit back her sobs when she heard her name declared with such fervent formality.

"You must not fail me!"

Suzume clutched the satchel until her knuckles turned white. "Will I ever see you again?"

"I don't know child, but let's hope so. Go, go now. They mean to leave today!"

Suzume turned away and forced her little feet to run. She went to her own tiny place in the world, the hut she had shared with the priestess for as long as she could remember. She pulled together what few rags of clothing that were not ruined by all the wet and she stuffed them into a crumbling pack that she strapped to her back. There was no food to save or anything else of value to collect. Suzume looked around, blinking back stinging tears.

"Suzume-san!" It was the urgent voice of the headman. It had always been rare for him to notice her, let alone address her. Suzume turned her back to the past and abandoned the tiny hovel.

Outside there was an atmosphere of orderly panic. She received curt instructions to aid in the herding of the children. Despite her tender age, she understood by the tone of the headman and by the looks of the other adults that she was unquestionably the new priestess, there was no way to deny it.

Nor any way to escape it.

They were gone in less than an hour. Men in the front led the way, finding the surest paths and carrying what supplies they still possessed. Men in the back watched for dangers and aided women and children when they slipped in the mud. No one reached out a hand to Suzume to steady her. No one helped her push aside the briars that seemed to want to flee as much as the people did.

_You just have to look after yourself now._

Into the mountains and into the growing dark, Suzume and her new fellowship fled the drowning world.

Momiji had not moved. She remained standing at the foot of the raised bed.

_I must pray, _she thought, _I must pray so fervently that I cannot be denied._

She lowered her head, saw the blackened water oozing out of her shoes, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Nothing came. She could think of nothing, nothing to add to the endless scroll of pleading that had already rolled from her heart in the past month.

_You're so sure, so sure you can save every hair on my head!_

The prayers did not come, but Momiji opened her eyes to see the water rising, slow at first, then with speed too fast to see, in a moment too close to now. She was in a black ocean, the walls of the hut surrendered at last, there was nowhere to run.

Before she felt the crash, she choked on a stupendous amount of the brackish water that was in her throat. She tried to cough it out, but instead of the torrent of water she expected, only a small, white lob of spit landed between her feet. She looked around and saw that it was still raining, but there was no flood, nothing but black mud. The walls of the hut remained standing.

Shaken by the vision, Momiji lowered herself with slow care to the foot of the bed. She sat between the feet of the strangers, holding her face in her hands.

"It's coming," she whispered to herself.

_What can I do?_

She ran outside. Holding out her arms and turning her face up to the ceaseless rain, she cried.

"What? What do you want me to do? What is it? Why the devil won't you just tell me?"

---

There was a soft voice singing, difficult to hear above the sound of rain. Miroku found that he could not open his eyes. Despite his greatest efforts, an intolerable desire to sleep lay upon him. He lifted his hand to seek the warm body sitting next to his bed. A fluttering hand caught his fingers—soft and small.

"Sango, is that you?"

Yes, it had to be.

"Oh," a voice answered, thick with tears. "Oh, my sweet boy."

No, that was wrong.

"Wait, what?" he mumbled.

A hand fluttered across his face, and for some reason he wanted to scream.

Miroku's eyes flew open. When he saw her sitting beside him, a woman with a plain face and a generous figure, he broke the chains of dreaming and sat bolt upright, scurrying back away from her.

"What?" he demanded.

She reached for him with a small porcelain hand, her eyes catching the light of fire like glittering bronze. Smiling, her lips parted. He believed she was trying to express a great joy.

He smacked her hand away in panic.

"Lies! This is a trick!"

The woman lowered her head and swayed like a beaten animal. Miroku watched her, frozen. He could not help but feel the urge to comfort her, despite the certainty that she was a fiendish apparition.

It sure looked like his mother, though.

He closed his eyes and began to whisper a prayer, repeating to himself.

"Demon of deceit, demon of trickery,

reveal yourself to me, reveal yourself to me."

While his eyes remained closed, she had lain down. He felt the weight next to him. Unable to resist, Miroku turned his head and opened his eyes.

A wave of relief washed through him. It was Sango, lying next to him with a face as white as alabaster. The demon slayer's right arm, which before could lift the ponderous Hiraikotsu above her head and hurl it without effort, was now wrapped and bound in a sling. But at least she was there.

"I can't believe it!"

Miroku turned to see a young woman standing at the foot of their bed. It was than that he noticed that they were lying in an unknown hut, and that it was raining.

The young woman bowed her head and murmured, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

The woman was so small that he thought at first she was a child, but it did not take him long to notice the curve of her elbows and the sweep of her shoulders, not to mention her careworn eyes, which all spoke of a greater maturity. Her priestess garb differed from Kaede's in small details. Her robes were white, except for a red smock caught by a pink sash. But long dampness and neglect had turned everything she wore a pitiful brown. She wore a necklace of green and white beads with a round amulet made of two bronze moons clasped together. When she lifted her head to look at him again he felt a shock of recognition.

"Momiji-san?" he exclaimed in surprise. Miroku was shocked to hear his own voice come out in a hoarse croak that could scarce be heard over the rain. He understood then that he was now awake where before he had been dreaming, and he looked down, panicked.

Much to his relief, Sango, white and ghost-like, was still there.

During Miroku's confusion, Momiji had her own.

"You know me?" She was shocked.

"You've grown, but then it's been a while. How have you been?"

His nonchalant tone was disorienting, but Momiji tried not to be bitter.

"Things could be better," she said. "But, how do you know me?"

Miroku tried to rise, but his legs wobbled and he lowered his head into his hands and groaned. His head pounded and every move twisted his stomach.

"Buddha help me," he groaned. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"About a month," she answered. "And how do you know me?"

"A month?" Miroku cried. Forgetting his pain, he turned and shook Sango's shoulders.

"Sango! Sango! You must awake! Sango!"

"Be careful of that arm," Momiji yelled at him. "And how the hell do you know me?"

Miroku turned to her. For a moment, he had been confused again, thinking she had meant his arm, that he should be careful not to unleash his curse.

_No, she doesn't know about that._

He was too exhausted to even consider a lengthy explanation.

"Tsubaki," was all he said.

"Huh?" Momiji gave him a blank stare. He watched the wheels turn in her head and listened for the click.

"Wait, what?" she exclaimed at last. "Why, you're, you're that pervert monk!"

Miroku sighed. _She would remember that part._

Momiji stood transfixed with her finger pointed at him, and then she moved it to Sango.

"The demon-slayer," she said. "Of course!"

"I'm really rather surprised that you didn't recognize us."

Momiji shook her head. "The first time I saw you, you were so injured you were hardly recognizable as human beings. After that, I had other things on my mind."

"Where are the others?" he asked her.

"Others? You two are the only ones we found."

Miroku gaped at her. "Are you sure? You did not even find the two-tailed cat?"

Momiji remembered the nekomata that could fly through the air and be large enough to carry you on her back, but otherwise was an adorable yellow kitten with bright pink eyes. It made her think of the small fox demon, equally cute, and of her sister, much more missed.

"No," she answered. "No one."

Miroku had regained his voice and the ability to sit upright. He placed his feet on the ground and they sank in sludge.

"What the…"

"It's been raining," Momiji explained.

"Raining," Miroku shook his head as if he still did not understand.

"Since before you came here. Since the explosion."

"The explosion," Miroku muttered. He shut his eyes tight against the image of the ball of black and pink light. He saw Kagura running towards it. A force knocked the air out of him. He was flying…he thought Kirara caught him, with her teeth, but then…

He shook his head.

"It's been raining for a month?" he asked, incredulous.

"Maybe more," Momiji answered. "And let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair."

Miroku thought that was an odd thing to say, but he did not answer.

Momiji came to his side and held out her hand. "Can you stand?"

"I don't know."

"Please, you must try." She did not wait for an answer. She pulled him up.

The world went black and Miroku fell to the bed again.

"I need to eat," he croaked.

Momiji went to a wooden box that sat on a table nearby. She removed something from it gingerly and carried it to him cupped in her hands like a holy treasure. She opened her hands to reveal a ball of rice, only a little bit bigger than a plum.

"There are few left," she said. "We have to be careful."

Miroku swallowed it in one gulp. He shuddered as it globbed down his esophagus like grit, and he tried not to wonder if those suspicious specks had been mold.

She was still standing in front of him. Sensing that she expected something, he tried not to look at her.

"I don't think I can do this," he said. His entire body was shaking.

"You have to. We have to leave."

Miroku looked over his shoulder. Sango had not stirred.

"What about her? I cannot leave her."

"You will have to carry her."

Miroku's shaking became more violent.

"I can't. It's impossible."

"I know it's hard. But you have to. We will die if we do not leave here."

"Is there no one to help us?"

"Everyone is gone," she answered.

"What about an animal? An ox, a cow even?"

"All gone."

There was a rumble in the distance, and at first Miroku thought it was thunder, but he felt a tiny tremor in the ground.

Momiji tensed. "That was a landslide," she said. "It is too late to try to go into the hills. We'll never make it that way."

"Then where do we go?"

"The rocky coast is all I can think of."

"How far is that?" he asked her.

Momiji thought about it. "About thirty li."

"That's impossible Momiji-san," Miroku mourned. "You must go. Just leave us here."

Momiji ignored that and offered him another clump of rice, this time with a piece of heavily salted meat. He could not tell the animal.

"You know what they say," she tried to sound cheerful. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

Miroku looked at her tiny hand, grimy and calloused. He looked at her filthy robes and matted auburn hair. He tried to see Kagome standing there, because Momiji's determination reminded him of her, because the world was so implausible with it's gloom and pain that he wanted to believe he was still dreaming.

_Can she really be gone?_

He saw the terrifying vision again, and it left him certain that Kagome's death had been carved into the mountainside. The hollow places in Miroku, places that had kept him on the road for all of his life and that had kept him encased in a self he could not love, filled and flooded with an impossible indignation.

He did not bother with hope, he assumed the worst because, after all, that was just so typical. Of course this would happen. It would be too much to ask for him to die an unjust death alone in the wilderness. Everything had to be taken from him first. Despite all that he had tried to do, the life he had tried to live, he would not be permitted any comfort whatsoever.

The universe was out to get him. Period. And the callous injustice of it all filled him with a palatable and unbearable anger. It occurred to him that he was becoming Inuyasha, and the thought only angered him more. He pictured Inuyasha standing before him, and himself with a wrathful finger in his best friend's face.

_Your pride did this. You're to blame! It's not my fault. Not mine. You're responsible for everything!_

The rage was building in his arms like an earthquake, but he held it tight.

_Shut up, _he told himself. _Now you really do sound just like him._

"Oh my lord," he lamented out loud. "Can a person fuck himself up so much?"

Momiji stared at him.

He continued, "that I cannot carry my beloved to the sea?"

Momiji's heart skipped a beat.

"I have tried praying, monk," she said after some time. "No gods or saints have come."

Miroku was silent as he tried to gather his breath and hold back the torrent of recrimination.

"I guess…" he suggested, "let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair?"

She nodded. Miroku clenched his teeth and raised himself to standing with a colossal effort.

Momiji grabbed his arms. "Come," she said. "Let's just try to get out of the house for starters."

Miroku went to the other side to lift Sango. As soon as he touched her, he realized she was even more wasted than he was; she felt hollow and scrawny, like a bird.

At least that made it easier to lift her. After some extensive grunting and sweating, he found himself standing in the middle of the hut with Sango cradled in his arms.

_I wonder, where is Hiraikotsu?_

But that was the least of their problems. Led by Momiji, Miroku plodded on, praying for strength with every step. Momiji led him out of the hut and into what was left of the street. The rain had smudged the roads, courtyards, and pastures all together, so they walked in a straight line heading due east.

"If we keep going this way," she said. "We'll have to hit the sea. The rocks and caves there may give us some shelter."

Miroku looked around at the decimated village. Some huts had collapsed altogether, when the earth could no longer stay together under their weight.

"What happened to everyone?" he panted and groaned with exertion.

"They left days ago, maybe weeks, it's hard to tell how much time passes with this rain. Don't waste your energy talking."

It was slow going. They sustained themselves on resentment and on the precious store of rice that Momiji carried and they rested under trees great enough to keep most of the rain off them. Miroku required rest often, two or three times an hour. Momiji feared that they would starve before they were half way to the coast.

However, after the first few days Miroku's strength began to return in slow doses, and he could walk longer without resting.

To his great worry, Sango only got lighter.

After what seemed like eons, they came to the sea. It spread before them like a gray blanket. They went down gentle slopes that led to the tan beaches.

"What now?" he asked.

Momiji looked around. "There," she pointed to large, flattened rocks that brooded over the sand. "That one. It's far enough from the waves to be safe in high tide."

They went to the side of the rock facing away from the ocean. The relentless tools of wind and sand had chiseled away a slender waist for the outcrop. It was not high enough to sit under without crouching, but they could lie under it and sleep. Momiji watched as Miroku lowered Sango to the ground with tenderness, and placed her as far out of the rain as he could without aggravating the injury of her right arm. They slept for almost an entire day.

The next morning, at Momiji's suggestion, they gathered all the flattened stones that they could find and they piled them into the careful construction of a wall, which extended in a curve from their shelter, like a crooked smile.

When they had finished, the weak daylight had faded and it was so dark that they would not have known the sea except for the pounding of the waves. But they could now sit under the cover, a moldy fur that Momiji had stretched from the wall to the sheltering rock, and thus find relief from the rain. Momiji took out some flint and gave it to Miroku.

"I doubt we can use it," she said.

He gathered what sticks he could from the beach and tried to use them as tender. Little sparks would fly off and disappear into the damp air before even hitting the wood.

Miroku was not about to give up, not sitting under the little shelter that he and Momiji had created from almost nothing, despite the rain, despite the hunger that was paining their finger tips. Momiji dozed off to the metallic ting-ting. She opened her eyes when it stopped and saw that he was blowing on a glowing ember that he covered with his hands. It took some time to grow and it never became much of a fire, dancing and swaying with a faint, green light. Nonetheless, Momiji and Miroku basked in the glow of its warmth and its triumph.

Apart from this bout of activity, Miroku spent most of his time sitting cross-legged beneath the shelter, dozing when he was not gazing at the sea. It was impossible to keep track of the passage of time because every hour was as gray as the hour before and after it.

On one of those hours, however, Miroku awoke to a demonic presence nudging against his skull. He looked around. Momiji was not in the shelter. He crawled to one of the openings and peered out towards the ocean.

Momiji was standing no more than four or five paces away. She stood with her diminutive feet firm in the sand, her fists clenched at her sides. She was facing down what looked like a bear demon. The monster towered over her, but Momiji's expression did not change. She whispered to Miroku.

"Stay back."

Then she pressed her palms flat together in front of her chest, with a piece of paper squeezed between her fingers.

"Demon!" she cried. "Be gone!"

Miroku was bowled over by the wave of spiritual energy she sent flying at the demon.

_Wow_, he thought_, she sure has gotten stronger._

The bear roared at her, but the priestess did not flinch.

"I have no wish to waste my energy killing you, but I will, if need be," she declared. "So leave now and live!"

Miroku saw the demon hesitate; he saw Momiji's ginger hair become a lion's mane in the wind and heard her courage roar like the sound of the sun. The image of a priestess staring down a calamity that was hungry for her blood pained Miroku, but he had the strength to not look away.

_Let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair._

The bear demon had tracked the scent of humans, looking for an easy meal when the rain had made it hard to find anything. However, he had not expected this much fight and, with a sea of fish nearby, it was not worth it. He shambled away.

The presence of a demon had tripped some switch in Sango's spinal cord and, as Miroku lowered his head in relief, he heard her voice.

"What's going on?"

She had lifted herself on her left arm and was looking around in apprehension with large, blinking eyes, trying to understand why a rock was an inch or two over her head.

Miroku stopped breathing.

"Thank goodness!" Momiji exclaimed. She knelt down beside Sango and checked her forehead, her pulse, and studied her eyes. Sango stared at her, uncomprehending.

"What's going on?" she repeated, her voice growing shrill.

"Sango, it's okay." Miroku crawled to her side. He wondered if the weeks in the sand and salt had made his smell unpleasant. Then he wondered why such an idiotic thought had occurred to him at all.

Momiji stood up. "I will try to get some fish," and she left.

"Miroku," Sango's voice was small and shaky. She pressed a trembling hand to her white forehead. "I feel terrible. What happened? Who is that? Where are the others? Where is Kirara?"

Miroku cupped her face in his hands. "Sango, listen to me. Everybody's gone. We're all that's left."

In the end, he could think of no better way to say it than to let it fall on her head and hope that he could hold her up.

"Gone?" she gasped. "What do you mean, gone? How long have I been asleep?"

"About two months, give or take a week or two."

"_What!" _

She tried to get to her feet. The reaction was automatic and Miroku had been expecting it. He held her down.

"No, no," he tried to sooth her. "You need to take it easy."

Sango could not argue because the mere act of sitting up had sent a black wave of nausea and faintness through her body. There was only one other reasonable thing to do. She started to cry.

Miroku had been expecting that too. He held her and rocked her in his arms, like a child.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "But we're going to get through this, I promise."

Sango did not hear him. She was too busy telling herself that she had failed to save her father, failed to protect her brother, and had led the innocent Kirara to a pointless death.

Over the next few weeks, the three companions of necessity sustained themselves on seaweed and fish, which they could roast on rare occasions over their pathetic green fire but most of the time had to eat raw. Sango's strength returned to her slowly, and she took to pacing the beach and gazing at the gray ocean, when the rain was not too heavy.

"Miroku," she asked him one day. "Why are we here?"

"It hasn't stopped raining since that day," he said, as if that answered everything.

Sango did the calculations in her head and her eyes widened.

"So…" she looked over her shoulder at Momiji, who sat under the shelter gazing into a pile of charred sticks that they could not get to burn that morning. "Her village?"

"Gone," he answered. "Everything seems to be washed away. I think it's raining like this everywhere."

"Do you think," Sango struggled with the notion. "Do you think the rain is our fault?"

Miroku was startled. "I…I don't know. I admit, it has occurred to me. But, how can that be? And, if so, what can we do?"

Sango did not have an answer.

A few days later, they were all under the cover together. Night had gathered around them in the sneaking way it always did. They were passing around bits of food when Momiji made some passing remark to Sango about Miroku, referring to him as the slayer's husband.

"We're not married," Sango corrected her.

"Oh!" Momiji was startled, and she flushed. "I'm sorry. I just assumed."

There was an awkward silence, until Momiji remembered that she had no reason to restrain herself.

"So, why aren't you?"

Sango looked up, surprised, and for the first time in more than three months, Miroku heard her laugh.

"Gees, I don't know, we just never did."

"I guess we kept saying: 'One day, when we defeat Naraku'", Miroku explained.

"That's sad," Momiji said. "To put your life on hold because of such a loathsome creature."

Miroku sat looking out at the rain, without realizing that it had dwindled to a drizzle, when inspiration struck.

"Let's do it now."

Sango choked on her fish. "What?" she gasped. "Are you crazy?"

"Probably."

Momiji twined a lock of hair around her fingers and studied him.

"Are you really serious?" she asked him.

"Absolutely."

"Well," Momiji said, "one priestess and the witness of sand and rain clouds does not a wedding ceremony make."

Miroku waved that aside. "It's good enough for me," he said. "I think the gods can overlook any irregularities. They owe us."

Momiji snorted. "That's the truth."

Sango meanwhile was near apoplexy, but Momiji presented the situation to her without complications, as Miroku had learned she was apt to do.

"Sango-chan," she said, "do not worry. You can always get out of it later by saying it wasn't legal."

"That is…I would never do that!"

"Oh good," the priestess said. "Then you want to."

And that was that.

Momiji held out her tiny hand. "The rain isn't too heavy. And look, you can even see some moonlight through those clouds."

So that was how Miroku and Sango found themselves standing on a windy and rainy beach, where it was so dark that they strained their eyes to watch their priestess remove her necklace.

"I guess this is holy enough," Momiji said.

She wrapped the beads around their hands.

"Now, pray to your ancestors for your good fortune."

Sango tried to remember them all, tried to remember every hair on her father's head. Miroku, on the other hand, made only a small show of it. He did not in truth believe that they could hear him from where they had gone.

The texture of the wet sand reached through Sango's shoes and traveled to her chest, even as her legs went numb. The smell of the world went into Miroku's lungs, and it smelled brand new.

_My heavens. Why did I wait so long?_

For the first time since the plateau…

No, since long before that…

…it felt so good to know they were not dead.

"We have no one else here to speak. Have you anything to say to each other?"

Sango listened to her heart thumping through the soles of her feet, took a ragged breath, and said: "Only that, by moving forward, we triumph."

Miroku could only squeeze her hand in response. When Momiji felt it, she had to steady herself and bite her lip to keep from crying.

"So be it," her voice was solemn against the pounding of the waves.

They stood in the sacred silence for a measureless time before they noticed the moon shining on the crests of the ocean.

"Look!" Sango turned her exalted face upward and she pointed to the sky.

Miroku and Momiji both looked up. The air was clear and a great, undeniable sweep had torn the clouds away. The multitude of stars danced in a celebration of the washed earth now revealed to the heavens.

***

[End of Chapter 11]

[Next chapter: Kikyou and Kohaku]


	12. Kikyou and Kohaku

The Edge of Resistance

Book One: The Dreaming World

Chapter 12: Kikyou and Kohaku

_"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" –Charles Dickens_

***

The rain was falling on her face. Kikyou awoke to see that it was night and the heavy veil of a moonless and starless dark hung about her. After a few foggy moments she realized she could hear the rain on the river, and all at once she remembered where she was.

Death had come, but not for her. She tried to recall the words that had been said, but found the memory blocked by an ache that covered her head and wrung her stomach.

_You are not the one._

Who is the one? Whom did Death seek? For whom could she be mistaken?

The answer came at once, and then seemed so obvious. It had to be Kagome.

_So she is dead then. _

Kikyou wondered what that meant for her, for Inuyasha, and for Naraku, but her thoughts descended into darker places. She wondered if she cared, or if she cared whether or not she cared. In her customary and calculating fashion she began to plan her next move, even as she lay in the mud, exposed to the rain.

When she tried to stand, her temples screamed in protest. A powder keg exploded behind her eyes and she gasped and collapsed again. The black outline of the trees danced and swayed in her vision, her stomach clenched, and she felt certain she would—

But that was impossible.

She realized with a fright that the soul-collectors were gone. They had not returned after Death had depleted her. That had to have been hours ago, and yet she was still animate. Was that why she felt so ill?

With horror, immobilized by fear and confusion, Kikyou now understood fully that her head was aching, that her stomach felt sick, that her body was weak and cold—cold that came not from a heartless, boneless body, but cold that stung from the outside, cold that stung muscles and organs. There was a thud of beating blood in her ears.

How can this be? What has happened? Has time gone backwards? She exerted her will to take slow and deep breaths, trying in this way to control herself. But when she moved again the world went black.

Kikyou found herself standing in a white room. The light was too bright and exacerbated her headache. She raised her hand to cover her eyes but the light eased back until it became long white tubes, set here and there on the ceiling in sets of twos and threes. They hummed and flickered chaotically like summer fireflies. Someone said something from behind her and she turned to see a man in strange clothes, whom she did not recognize.

"Miss, are you in line?" he asked again.

Kikyou had the feeling that she was in danger of looking like an idiot. She mumbled an apology and started to turn away to leave but he laid a light hand on her arm.

"It's okay, you want to buy that, right?" he nodded at something she realized she was carrying. "Just move ahead."

"Oh," was all she could say. The item she carried was alien to her. The clunky and garish box looked like it may contain food, but she could not be sure. She did not recognize all of the writing.

_This must be a merchant establishment of some kind. I'm waiting to pay._

She became worried again when she remembered that she did not have any money. She thought of searching her pockets, but her own clothing was so bizarre she did not even know where to start. When she got to the end of the line, where a young man with a slight build and a short ponytail operated a loud and angry sounding device, she started to mumble a confused apology again.

"Do not worry," someone said. "It is no trouble."

Kikyou looked up to see a woman smiling at her. She looked familiar, but Kikyou could not place her. Something exchanged hands, the woman asked Kikyou an unintelligible question about "heat", and her item was taken from her. Then she was pulled away, through doors that were hard but transparent. Kikyou lingered before crossing the threshold. She cocked her head. Someone was singing, but she could not locate the performer nor understand the words.

"All you need is love," the woman said quietly.

Kikyou blushed. "What?"

"That is what those words mean. It is in another language."

Kikyou shifted the box in her hands (it was almost too hot to handle), trying to cover her confusion. She snorted.

"What an absurd thing to say."

"Yes, I am sure you are right," the woman answered.

A few minutes later she found herself placed on a wooden seat, overlooking a small, green field, and holding a steaming box on her lap.

"Go ahead," said the woman sitting beside her. "It's good, I promise."

Kikyou fumbled with the chopsticks and ate the food in slow, dazed movements. Meanwhile, children laughed and ran on the grass with a dog, squealing with delight every time the large animal tripped one of them. A stick landed nearby and the woman rose and picked it up. For a moment, she stood holding it like a sword, and Kikyou understood.

"You're Midoriko, aren't you?"

The woman threw the stick away, and the dog tore after it, kicking up sod with his paws.

"Yes," she answered dusting off her hands. She sat down again.

"Where am I?" Kikyou asked her. "How did I get here? Is this your doing?"

"You have been full of questions lately, have you not?" Midoriko said. She looked pointedly at the food. "You had better get used to that. It will not go away."

"What? What do you mean?" Kikyou looked down at the box. It was empty now.

Midoriko sighed. "Why must you persist in making this more difficult than it needs to be? If you go on like this, you will starve in the wilderness, and then what? We have not gone through all this trouble to bring you back to have it end like that."

"I don't understand." Kikyou was telling the truth, she was genuinely confused. But she also felt an overpowering urge to cry.

"Do you not?"

Kikyou only stared at her. Midoriko looked sad, and she moved closer to her. Kikyou was startled when the woman put her arms around her and squeezed her shoulders. Kikyou smelled Midoriko's hair, felt her warmth, and heard her heart pounding. Her own heart squeezed in her chest and fluttered. It hurt.

It hurt.

And that was all there was to it. She realized, with some regret, that she was not going mad. She felt warm blood and creaking organs, churning in bile and water, she felt tired, and hungry and the urgings of her bladder.

"It's not possible!" she declared in spite of the evidence. She tried to push away, but Midoriko would not release her.

"It's not possible! It's a trick, a dream!"

"It's not possible!" she repeated. She tried to push away again, then fell against the woman's soft chest and sobbed like a brokenhearted child. She cried so hard she half expected that something inside would break, and yet she felt that she could not cry hard enough.

When she could control her voice again, Kikyou forced out the question that had been somewhere in her mind since she awoke on the riverbank.

"Does this mean that she is dead?"

Midoriko smoothed her hair and wiped away tears from her chin.

"Come visit me," she said.

"What? Visit you?"

"Yes," the ancient priestess answered. "I may be sleeping to pass the time. Knock loud."

Kikyou still did not understand, but before she could say anything else, she felt a sharp pain bite her ankle. The children had thrown the stick again and this time it had come too close.

"Oh!" she cried. She bent to examine the injury, but then she noticed she was wearing her priestess attire again. She looked around.

Even though it was night, as dark as dark could ever get, she could tell she was no longer in the Meadow of the Other World. She was also no longer beside the river, but was standing in the dark, under the spreading branches of a large oak tree. It was still raining. Cradled in the enormous roots of the tree, the boy lay sleeping nearby.

So it was just a dream.

Kikyou moved to his side, intending to sleep beside him, but her right foot or leg bothered her when she walked. Kikyou looked down and froze. Her ankle was scraped and bleeding.

She sat down to examine the wound, but it was impossible in the moonless night. Just then, the rain lessened to a small degree, and a faint gray sheen made it through the clouds. Kikyou turned to move her bow out of the way so she could lay down unhindered.

Kagome was lying on the ground on the other side of her. Kikyou's sometime ally, sometime enemy was on her back, with her hands folded across her heart, as though waiting to be burned. Her face was so dim and gray that it was not easy to see, except for her eyes that were bright and staring out like baleful, blue flames. Kikyou understood in an instant that death had driven the young girl insane.

_So that's the answer: she is dead and I am not. Time going backwards and forwards and getting everything mixed up._

"Give me that!" Kagome hissed. "It's _mine_!"

She snatched the bow away, and hollow fingers of ice brushed Kikyou's hand. Kagome laid the bow across her chest and closed her eyes. Her face became still and white, like an entombed warrior-king.

The silence grew up all around them, but then was shattered unexpectedly when Kagome, eyes still closed and without moving a single hair, began to chant in a hoarse whisper.

_Dead be hope and heart and bone,_

_and dead be we who stood alone._

_Look for me in the west by the sea,_

_in the fields of eternal snow,_

_By the sea, by the sea._

Kikyou wondered to herself if this would happen every night.

She thought nonsensically, _do I need to get another bow then?_

_What now?_

She turned to the boy, and reached out her hand to stir him, but then changed her mind. When she turned back again Kagome was gone. The bow lay on the ground, looking somehow ridiculous with its own sleeping place.

When did I stop dreaming?

When did I _start_ dreaming?

Her ankle still throbbed.

It was impossible to sleep. Kikyou sat with her back to the tree and waited for the dawn. The power of the rain picked up again, and the tree no longer offered any protection against the deluge. Her mud-caked clothes clung to her back and her fingertips were like dried fruit.

The ability of the boy to sleep through anything remained unrivaled.

The light was only just beginning to seep into her vision again, when Kikyou passed the last sentry of her bitterness. In the long watch of that night, she surrendered to the evidence of her new existence. She thought she understood what Midoriko was trying to tell her. Whatever had happened to her must have happened for a reason, and there was no use in wondering why. Perhaps it was not for her to know.

It was this last bastion that she overthrew just before the dawn. When she finally got up and went some distance away to relieve her aching bladder, she defeated the gall that stood between her and acceptance. She returned to the boy and gently shook him awake, just as the hazy light turn into undeniable day. Kikyou resolved to keep moving, to discover what had become of Kagome, and what, if any, purpose lay behind this new phase of her life.

They were pointed in the right direction already. Kikyou had planned to return the lost boy to the village of demon slayers, and Midoriko's cave lay within a stone's throw of that village.

As they walked through the land, both Kikyou and her charge recognized fields and forests, seeing for the first time the mural of their past. Kikyou came to believe that they were moving backwards in time, and as she walked she contemplated her fate. Was this new development a blessing, or a trap? If she went to Midoriko's cave again, would someone give her the jewel, fully restored as though nothing had happened? Perhaps it would go even further. Perhaps it was her turn to be entombed in that cavern.

So be it. She set herself on the familiar path with grim determination.

It would turn out to be a longer journey than either of them anticipated. The rain held steady, obscuring everything with stubborn grey and washing away the roads. The first villages they passed were merely sad, dirty places. Kikyou traded whatever services were useful in exchange for two musty beds and a couple of meager meals.

Each night they drifted through a troubled sleep, amid the constant hum of the rain, and the wheezing of the asthmatic pigs as they struggled to avoid drowning in their mud. Each night Kikyou relinquished her weapon to Kagome's phantom, and each morning found it lying beside her, where the nightmare had disappeared without so much as a word.

But as their journey progressed, the villages on the roadside began to transform from sad, dreary places to desperate, pathetic haunts. One after another, headmen along the way pleaded with her to do whatever she could to assuage the curse they were convinced haunted and hunted them. Even after employing all her skills to assure them, Kikyou took food and shelter with a sad guilt. There was nothing she could do about the weather.

As the pleas for assistance grew more frantic, Kikyou noticed that her companion grew more nervous. He would stand closer to her, his eyes scanning their surroundings and his hand often straying to his weapon. She had never seen him use it and she had trouble believing such a boy could be dangerous, but something in his eyes warned her that she was wrong.

It had been at least a few weeks since their journey began—it was difficult to keep track of the passing time as all the grey days and nights blended together. The two travelers dragged their exhausted bodies over one last washed out road to another wasted village, just as the sickly sun was setting behind the mist.

This one was larger than most, and Kikyou believed, based on her memory, that it was the last village they would pass before coming to the home of the demon slayers. Many of the houses they passed upon entering the village were abandoned. The two of them had almost given up on the entire settlement when they noticed the light of small fires flickering in the distance. The southern end of the village rested on gentle slopes that overlooked their neighbors to the north. When Kikyou and her companion arrived, they found a bustle of activity, people carrying items in all directions, children playing and crying, and women running after them with shrill admonishments. Kikyou realized that most of the village's population had retreated to this area to escape the soggy ground below.

In the chaos, the two strangers were not noticed, until a tall and thin man pointed his finger and give a sudden shout above the noise of the crowd.

"Look! A miko!"

The people nearby stopped in their tracks. A small crowd began to form around the two travelers. Kikyou was not concerned, but her companion scanned the whispering throng for danger and he edged closer to her.

A burly man with long, gray hair pushed his way through until he was face to face with Kikyou.

"What is your name?" the man demanded.

Kikyou did not care for his tone, but decided now was not the time to make an issue of it.

"I am called Kikyou."

The man furrowed his brow. "That's not possible," he said. "The priestess Kikyou is long dead."

Kikyou stood silent.

The man shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I will take what I can get. We need your services."

Kikyou bowed.

"I can care for children, prepare meals, tend to the sick and injured, repel demons and black magic and provide spiritual assistance, as needed."

Kikyou straightened and looked the man in the eyes. She decided it was best to get some things out in the open right away.

"I have no control over the weather."

The man's eyes darkened. "Weather? No. But curses, that would be different."

"Yes, it would be. I would detect the presence of a curse."

"I see." He turned away and made a curt gesture. "Take them!"

A number of men came rumbling across the mud to surround them. The boy drew his weapon.

"No," Kikyou grabbed his arm. "Do not."

With reluctance, he lowered his hand. His weapon was taken.

"This way!" the leader told them and turned away, heading back to the huts.

One of the men took Kikyou's arm and made it clear she was to follow. They did not pay much attention to the boy once he had been disarmed, but he followed anyway.

Because of the crowd, Kikyou could not see much of their surroundings, but they walked for only a few minutes before she found herself in a room with the boy. Unlike the thatch houses of the village, this room was made of stone and the windows were not wide enough to put even an arm through. The leader appeared again at the doorway.

"Please forgive us. Times like these, there's no place for pleasantries. This is for your own safety. I wouldn't want anyone to disturb you."

"What do you want of me?" Kikyou demanded, her face white and eyes flashing.

"Stay here until you can detect the curse that's afflicting us. Then break it. That simple."

"But, my lord," she protested. "I cannot. I must be gone tomorrow."

"That," the man said, "is not going to happen."

Then they were all gone. In a matter of ten minutes, Kikyou had gone from itinerant traveler to indentured prisoner.

Kikyou sat down on the dirt floor to consider her situation. The most maddening thing about it was that she had walked right into it. A part of her was busy muttering how humans were such an unworthy, ungrateful lot that she should not have troubled herself.

But this was the old part, the part that was getting smaller each day, the part that still remembered what it was like to be something other than strictly human, and the part that did not know hunger, exhaustion, or pain.

That was over now. She told herself that at least they would have food.

Probably.

The boy was busy examining the room.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for weaknesses," he answered. "To get out of here."

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this."

"Don't be silly," was all he said, and he continued to crawl about the floor against the far wall.

At last, he stood up. "I don't see any way out, not now anyway," he announced. "Maybe we could dig our way out, depending on the severity of their watch."

"Getting out is easy," Kikyou told him. "I just have to say I detected the curse."

The boy looked at her, surprised.

"It's getting away alive once they have realized that I'm lying, that's the problem."

He considered that for a moment. "Okay," he said. "I think I can help you with that."

"We must not kill any of them."

"I can disable them without killing them."

Kikyou shuddered.

"Are you certain you do not remember who you are?" she asked.

He looked up, startled. "What do you mean?"

"Never mind. I need to think for a moment."

A thorough account of her circumstance was overdue. Kikyou was nothing if not methodical.

Item number one: the rain. This item had to be number one because it was impossible to ignore. It was the first thing everyone, including Kikyou, thought of when they awoke to the grey morning and the last thing they thought of when they fell asleep under the starless sky.

Item number two: her second reformation. The soul collectors had departed because she no longer had any use for them. The dreams were not random plays in her subconscious theater; they were messages. Midoriko, in some form, was conscious and active in the world. Had she been responsible for her rebirth? Did she have that kind of power?

Item number three: the boy.

Item number four: Kagome.

Kikyou shook her head.

_Give me that! It's _mine_!_

Kikyou cringed and pushed the thought away. It pretended to go.

"Get some sleep," she said to the boy. "I will decide what to do in the morning."

The boy had a special talent for falling asleep on command, and in minutes she knew by his rhythmic breathing that he was slumbering.

Kikyou herself drifted in and out of sleep. This time she did not see Kagome's flesh sepulcher. She roused herself several times in the night with the strange desire to see it, to find it, but it was never there. The long night was restless. With less than an hour before dawn, she heard the words.

"Dead be hope and heart and bone."

"By the sea, by the sea."

She was shocked when she realized it was the boy, murmuring in his sleep, chanting and sweating and locked in a fitful dream.

"Let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair."

Kikyou froze. She did not doubt that those words were meant for her.

"You're alive, aren't you?"

Kikyou suppressed the urge to scream. She wanted to shake him, to stop him from saying any more of these merciless things, and yet she could not do so. She suspected he was in a hypnotic state that linked her to the dreaming world where all the answers still lay buried. His words were sparks to her mind's tinder. He whispered, and she listened with greed.

"Come back, come back, come back…to me!"

The last word became a thin and ghostly wail, pitiful and yet threatening. Kikyou could take no more.

"Who are you?" she cried, choking on tears and her heart beating down her ribs as if to get out.

The boy opened his eyes, but saw nothing. He did not move. His cheeks were wet.

"Kohaku," he said. "I am Kohaku, and I died on the shores of Toutoumi."

Kikyou beheld a vision, unbidden, of a boy wandering, lost and witless, beside the water.

"I am Kikyou," she answered, stammering and sobbing. She crawled to the corner of the room and put her face in her knees.

"I am Kikyou and I died in the days of my youth."

She must have fallen asleep, because the room was much lighter when she opened her swollen eyes. She looked around.

Kohaku, if that was his true name, sat with his head in his hands. Kikyou went to him and gently pulled his hands away.

"Is Kohaku your true name?" she asked him.

He looked up at her. All traces of her distress the night before had vanished, and she was again a stern woman, tall and fearless she seemed to him.

"Yes," he answered.

"Do you remember your former life?"

"Yes. Do you remember yours?"

"For the most part, yes."

He looked up at her, his red eyes desperate and bright.

"Aren't you angry?" he demanded.

Kikyou was taken aback. She had not expected that question.

"Well, yes, of course."

He pulled his hands out of her grasp and looked down again.

"It isn't fair," he muttered.

Kikyou responded without thinking. "Let's not waste our—

"Don't say it!" he shouted and stopped his ears. "I don't want to hear it!"

Kikyou looked at him in wonder for a while. Then she knelt beside him.

"There are strange things at work here, Kohaku-san," she said. "I do not know what is purposed for you and me, or what has brought us together, but I know that I do not wish to be alone. Do not forsake me, Kohaku-san!"

Kohaku shuddered and, as Kikyou watched him, his face became very still, and then set in a grim expression. A fire in his eyes was smothered, and they went dark again.

_He is strong_, she thought, _stronger than I realized. I am glad he is not my enemy._

"So," he said at last, in an almost casual tone. "How do we get out of here?"

Less than an hour later they were standing on the edge of a cliff. Kikyou had convinced the village headman that she needed to be near a body of water to effectively combat the curse. In this way, she thought it might be possible to escape their captors if they could chance a swim. But the headman, suspecting treachery, had brought them to a high cliff that overlooked a wide but shallow river.

Knowing there was no way for the two to escape alive, the leader allowed them to stand alone on the very edge.

"What now?" Kohaku whispered.

"I don't know." Kikyou confessed.

The way back was too heavily guarded. They could only go that way if they went as prisoners. She was beginning to consider taking this course when Kohaku let out a small gasp. Kikyou looked at him sharply, fearing that he was losing his footing.

On his face was an expression of joy, such as she had not seen in all the time they had traveled together.

"Kohaku-san? What is it?"

He did not answer. Instead, he put his fingers to his lips and gave a shrill whistle. The men behind him stirred at this sudden movement, but he heeded them not.

"Kohaku-san," Kikyou said nervously. "What are you doing?"

Then her eyes followed his. She placed a hand above her eyes, trying to peer through the endless and irritating veil of rain.

"What is that?"

Kohaku laughed—a sound she had never heard.

"A fortune," he exclaimed. "Unlooked for!"

He grabbed her hand and pulled, hard. Before Kikyou understood what was happening, they had left the safety of the cliff. She heard the dismayed cries of the villagers and she expected a long fall through the air, but she found herself instead flung upon something that was firm and yet yielding. The boy was pulling on her.

"Up, Kikyou-sama," he said, laughing. "Up!"

Kikyou discovered she was sitting astride an animal with golden fur. There was a great distance between her hanging feet and the ground, but the cliff, with their former captors, was receding away. She realized that she was clinging to Kohaku with all her strength.

"What is this meaning of this?" she demanded.

"Kikyou-sama," he said. "Meet Kirara!"

Kohaku leaned forward, and stroked the head of their rescuer. Kikyou saw that they were straddling an impressive cat demon, one that could bear them and fly through the air with ease.

"Kirara!" he cried, almost in tears. "How did you find me? Beyond all hope! I can't believe it!"

Kikyou looked around, and then tugged on his sleeves.

"Kohaku-san," she said. "We are going the wrong way. We need to go to the cave!"

"Do you hear that, Kirara?" Kohaku said. "Let's go home!"

Kirara made a low, rumbling sound, between a purr and a roar, and they reared about and headed west.

Kikyou reassessed her situation. It was indeed a fortune unlooked for. Not only had the two-tailed cat saved them from a precarious situation, but they would be able to cover in hours a distance that would take them days on foot, perhaps more in the rain.

She concluded that they had done quite well.

Nonetheless, she avoided looking down. Kikyou was a firm believer that human feet belonged planted on the earth. Even boats made her a trifle giddy. She clung to the boy, who was pressing his face into the cat's fur, and utterly indifferent to everything around him. He seemed to be in a sort of communion with the animal.

_Demon_, she corrected herself.

At one point, she risked a peek at the land flying by under her feet. A wave of nausea and lightheadedness overtook her and she shut her eyes tight. She had managed to see some of the land, but there was nothing to report. It was grey and brown, and large expanses of the flatter land had been transformed into mud lakes and swamps.

Since the boy—_Kohaku_—seemed to know where he was going, she decided she did not have to bother opening her eyes again. The image of the scurrying earth, however, was difficult to remove from behind her eyes. It etched into the back of her eyelids, and reappeared even when she tried to replace it with something else. Even Kagome, lying still in a haunted death, could not supplant it, and she was beginning to lose her fight against panic—a little winged thing that fluttered and clawed on the edge of her mind.

The movement and the rush of air slowed and ceased and Kikyou knew without looking that they were on the good green earth again.

Or rather, the soggy, brown earth.

When she opened her eyes, Kikyou saw that they were not at the cave, but in a ruined and decrepit village. She slid off the demon—_Kilala—_with such stiffness that one would think she had never even ridden a horse.

"This…I think this is the exterminators' village," Kikyou said doubtfully, looking around at the crumbling houses.

Kohaku had walked a few feet away, to a patch of grass and wildflowers against the perimeter wall. The broken houses stood in a ring around them. They were empty and dark, with rain falling through the large holes in the thatch and blowing in a mist through the doors and windows. The place had the sad look of being once well lived in but now long forgotten. Here and there one could see the parts of sickles, axes, and even plows, sticking up like rusted bones above the grass. Little yellow flowers grew out of the wooden handles and the gears of unidentifiable implements.

"Yes," Kohaku said. "This was the exterminators' village. But that was a long time ago."

He knelt in the soaked grass and bowed his head. It was then that Kikyou realized that the patch of grass and wildflowers was in truth a row of earthen mounds.

_These are graves_, she thought.

She left him alone. She selected the house that appeared the most stable and walked across the center courtyard to investigate. She took a rake from a peg on the outside of the house and chased away a scrawny, miserable-looking raccoon. The inside of the house had some promise. It had three small rooms built in a single row. The center room had a larger irori in the center, with cupboards built against the walls. The little doors were swinging open and some were missing, and any food was long gone. But once a family had prepared and shared their meals here.

This room was not usable. Almost the entire roof was gone and a small stream of water ran through the remains of the hearth, carrying with it snails and lizards that did not even try anymore to hold on to land. But the room on the far right was more or less intact, though the dirt floor was sodden and foamy. Searching houses nearby, Kikyou found some straw mats that did not disintegrate when touched and some blankets that were not too moldy. She piled as many of these as possible onto a few planks of wood, some stones, and a few sticks from a storage house. Nothing she did could change the fact that everything was wet, or at least damp, but this makeshift mat would be an improvement to sleeping in the mud. She was just about to go to Kohaku to ask him to help her find food when a mysterious sound rose above the rain. It was a voice.

She went out. It must have been late afternoon, but the light had changed little since that morning. Kohaku was sitting in the same spot, but his voice was raised in a song she had never heard before.

_Your life has gone_

_to the home fire I cannot return_

_The memories_

_they bound my eyes, they stop my ears_

_Where is my father?_

_Where are my kin?_

_They have passed—gone away_

_like tears in the rain_

_like shadows in the night_

_never to return_

_The sun has gone down in the west_

_Out of hope, out of sight_

_Sun and laughter_

_love and flower_

_all fade, all fade_

Kikyou waited in silence for him to say something, anything. After the song had echoed several times in the temple of her head, she spoke first.

"Whatever happened, you must not blame yourself."

He turned on her with flashing eyes. "How can you say that?" he demanded. "When you don't even know what happened?"

"It does not matter," she answered, unaffected. "You were just a child. There are things…"

She fell silent for a moment. The darkness had gathered around them now with obstinate firmness. Whether the sun had gone down or had been snuffed out forever by the pitiless rain, she was not sure.

"There are things…when I was older than you are even now…for which I would not bear blame."

They stood in the silent dark. At last, Kikyou put a hand on his shoulder.

"Come," she said. "Help me find something to eat."

They found nothing in the village. Kikyou wished she had not let the raccoon escape.

"I'll be back," the boy said abruptly, and he dashed away into the surrounding forest.

Kikyou started, but her exclamation died on her lips—he was already gone. She waited for him to return for almost an hour, before she resolved to search for him.

Just then, however, he reemerged, carrying four bloody hares by their ears. Once skinned, they were pitifully scrawny creatures, but the meat was devoured gratefully. Kohaku gave two of them to Kirara. In the hut, with full stomachs and relatively dry heads, the two slept better than they could ever remember.

The next morning, Kikyou was disappointed to see the rain. She had awoken with a feeling that something monumental had changed, but the world still looked the same to her. They departed early for the cave, with Kirara following close behind.

It took only half an hour to get there, and that was only because they had to climb a hill where the mud was treacherous. Kohaku refused to ride on Kirara if it was not necessary, and he struggled manfully up the slope, pulling Kikyou behind.

At the top, the mouth of the cave was waiting for them. Kikyou stood staring at it, thinking how deceptively normal it appeared. It was just a gaping, black hole in the rock.

As they approached it, however, she detected a barrier. It was unusual, quite beyond her knowledge. They stood at the entrance.

"There's always been a power here," Kohaku said. "They say it keeps out the wicked and greedy."

"Yes," Kikyou replied. "But this is different. This will not let us pass."

Kohaku waited. Kikyou thought.

There was a stone lying near the entrance that Kikyou noted was perfectly round. Feeling rather absurd, she picked it up and clanged it on the outside lip of the cave's opening.

_Knock loud, I'm home._

The barrier disappeared. Kikyou dropped the rock and walked into the cave without hesitation.

"How did you know to do that?" Kohaku asked, catching up to her.

"I dreamed about it." She answered. Neither thought this strange.

The air was cool and damp, and like any cave it was indifferent to the world outside. They had only taken a few steps, however, when an unexpected scent hit their noses with a sudden strength of force. It was heavy, and sickeningly sweet. The air lit with it like lightening. They saw before them a carpet of bellflowers, as blue as the summer sky.

Kikyou was too mesmerized for a moment to move, then she drew a sharp breath.

"Kohaku-san!" she shouted. "This can't be! It's a trap!"

There was no answer. She turned about in all directions, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the floor of flowers reached for the horizon in every direction.

Kikyou gripped her bow, painfully aware of how the scent was carried through her living, breathing nose. She scanned the horizon. Only one thing looked different, something that rose above the petals, but it was too far away to discern. She took slow but deliberate steps in that direction, all the while dragging the clanging notion that she had led them to disaster.

It was a bier. Someone was laying on it.

Waiting to be burned.

_It'll be me, _she thought.

_No, it'll be Inuyasha._

_No wait, of course it will be Kagome._

_So then it will be me._

She approached with dread.

It was the boy.

_Kohaku, _she reminded herself, even as she spun on her heels, tears stinging her eyes, placing her back to him.

"Stop it!" she shouted. "Stop this!"

"Dead be hope and heart and bone."

Kikyou held her breath. She turned around again. This time, it was Kagome after all.

"Dead be hope and heart and bone," the girl repeated, looking at Kikyou, sending a thrill of fear through her because her eyes did not really see anything.

"No," Kikyou whispered. "It is not true. You're testing me. Or someone else is."

"Dead be…"

"NO!"

"All night," Kikyou whispered. "All I hear…all I hear is your heart."

"How come?" Now the girl looked at her with clear and warm eyes.

"I do not know. Perhaps…because somewhere, you live."

Kagome sat up. She pulled the veil of flowers away from her chest and shook the blue petals from her hair. She looked at Kikyou again, but now her eyes were uncertain.

"Kikyou?" she looked alarmed. "Kikyou, what is it? Are you hurt?"

Kikyou did not answer, but she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Where am I?" Kagome looked around, dazed. "How did I get here?"

Kikyou stared at her. "Kagome? Is that really you?"

"Well, of course it is! What's going on?"

Kikyou took hold of the girl's arms.

"Where are you Kagome?" she demanded. "Are you sleeping somewhere? Safe? Hurry and tell me before this ends."

"What are you talking about? I don't understand!" Kagome looked around her and tried to pull away from Kikyou.

"Inuyasha!" she shouted. "Where are you?"

"Kagome, no one is here." Kikyou tried to calm the girl down. "This isn't real. You're asleep somewhere. You must tell me where that is!"

"I don't know!" Kagome shouted, finally. "The last thing I remember is…"

Fire. Ash. Dust. Burning, burning, burning.

Kikyou saw Naraku before her eyes. He was leering at her. Her body was burning, especially her right arm. She reached for something. People were somewhere behind her, screaming Kagome's name. But she was screaming for…

Kikyou shook herself free of the vision.

"Why did you do that, foolish girl!" she demanded.

But Kagome did not answer. She was weeping.

"Death came for me?" she asked in a quivering voice.

"Yes," Kikyou answered. "But you were lucky; she came to me by mistake."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Kagome continued to weep.

"Stop that!" Kikyou snapped.

"Kagome, wake up. I'm ordering you to wake up."

Kikyou looked around for the new arrival, but could see no one. A deep, glacial voice rang above their heads.

"No more delay. You must wake up and you must do it now."

"Who is that?" she asked Kagome.

"I don't know, but he sounds familiar. It's not Inuyasha…or Miroku…"

Kagome's voice trailed off. Kikyou looked at her sharply. The girl appeared to be fading.

"No, wait! Wait just a moment more!"

But Kagome had stopped seeing or hearing her. She fell back slowly, away from the bier, but had vanished before she could land on the flowers.

***

Outside, Kirara waited. Nightfall had come without a star, but long after the last traces of sunset had faded the rain had stopped. It ceased all at once, cut off in one stroke, and the clouds were torn asunder. Kirara lifted her head and watched as they scuttled away, as if the stars and moon had finally obtained final victory in a long battle.

[End of Chapter 12]

[Next chapter: Sesshoumaru, Jaken, and Rin]


	13. Sesshoumaru, Jaken, and Rin

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World **

Chapter 13: Sesshoumaru, Jaken and Rin

_"I know what conscience is, to begin with. It is not what you told me it was. It is the divinest thing in us. Don't sneer at it, Harry, any more, –at least not before me. I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous." –Oscar Wilder_

***

Sesshoumaru had gone with Tamotsu to track the spider demons, but Rin and Jaken knew nothing about it and they remained in the Hyouden alone. Rin was more than capable of occupying herself, but Jaken crawled through the time at an agonizing pace. On the second day, when the summer afternoon sun was white in the sky, Rin ambled in the fields close to the house where she picked handfuls of the delicate white flowers that covered the plain to the north, giving the Hyouden its name. Jaken looked rather like a grotesque Buddha statue, sitting cross-legged on the parapets, from which he kept a close eye on his charge.

His ennui evaporated when an astounding BOOM rang in his ears and knocked him back onto the terrace. He scrambled to his feet and saw that Rin was still standing below, but she was holding her hair away from her face and gaping at a tall, grayish-brown column that towered above the blue Hakasun Mountains. It must have been at least seventy miles away.

They did not have much time to wonder at it, for no more than a minute later the sky changed from a calm blue to a terrible and inky gray. Great clouds like black hands gripped the sky and ripped it apart; a torrential downpour belched forth. The change in the atmosphere was shocking, and Rin let out a startled yelp and ran back to the house. Before she had reached it Jaken realized that the rain was poisoned.

He ran to the threshold, grabbed her arm as soon as she came through the door, and began dragging her through the house.

"Jaken-sama!" she cried. "What's the matter with you?"

He pulled her down some steps and through another door. He had brought her to the baths; sunken pools fed by springs from the mountains. Without a word, Jaken brought Rin to the edge of one and pushed her in.

Rin came up sputtering and laughing.

"Is this a new game?"

Jaken paid no attention to her, but watched as the water around her began to gray.

"Give me your clothes!" he ordered.

Rin pulled off her yukata, drenched and quite heavy, and threw it to him without question. He let it land with a wet plop on the stone floor before he bent over it, sniffed at it, and then picked it up. Carrying it as though it were a live snake, he took it back upstairs and threw it out the nearest window.

"Jaken-sama!" he heard Rin calling. "I'm cold!"

"Why should I care, stupid girl!" he yelled back at her.

Despite his tone, he went to her room to fetch another robe. He was returning to the stairs when he sensed his lord's approach and turned to see Sesshoumaru coming down the hall, accompanied by that nomadic, no account "cousin" of his.

"Jaken, where is Rin?" Sesshoumaru spoke first.

"Greetings my lord! Welcome home."

He waited a few moments for some perfunctory acknowledgement of traditional salutations, but as nothing came but silence, he answered.

"Rin is down in the baths."

Sesshoumaru, followed by his cousin, walked past Jaken without another word. Jaken jumped up.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, remembering how he had left Rin. "Wait for me, my lord!"

He tried to get in front of the two dog demons, but he was unsuccessful. As they entered the room, Rin let out a cry of joy and came to the edge of the pool, leaning out as far as she could and waving.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're back! Look what Jaken-sama has done to me."

Sesshoumaru shot a sidelong glance at Jaken. Jaken flinched.

"She was outside!" he managed to blurt out.

"I see," was his lord's only reply. "Rin, cover yourself."

Rin looked around. "But…"

Jaken threw the garment at her and it landed on her head. She stepped out of the pool and wrapped herself in a green yukata.

"Tada!" she spread her arms to show how she had obeyed.

Tamotsu chuckled softly.

"You've grown, Rin no Reijin."

Without warning, Jaken came from behind Tamotsu and pushed him in the water. Tamotsu did not sputter, but when he rose from the water his face was wrathful.

"You nasty little vermin, what is your problem?"

"You looked like you need to cool off," Jaken answered, unruffled.

"The water is hot, you imbecile!"

Rin laughed. "Don't be mad, Tamotsu-sama," she said. "It's just Jaken's new game."

"Jaken-sama," she turned to her caretaker. "Aren't you going to push in Sesshoumaru-sama?"

Sesshoumaru turned his gaze to his vassal, and Jaken blanched.

Attempting to change the subject, Jaken asked, "My lord, did you see the explosion? Do you know what has happened?"

"Oh yes, that's right!" Rin exclaimed. "The earth shook, and this cloud rose high above the mountains. It was…awful…"

Her voice trailed away, and her face became pensive.

"Rin-chan?" Tamotsu looked at her.

"I don't know," she said, her eyes distant. "But when I think of it, I feel bad…kind of scared and well, like I'll never be content again."

Everyone in the room was rather taken aback, and stared at her. Sesshoumaru walked to her side.

"Do not fear, Rin," he told her.

Rin smiled at him, though he thought she looked rather gray and lifeless. "Of course, my lord!"

He suggested that she seek her bed soon, and told Jaken that he and Tamotsu were going to the source of the disturbance.

"Keep a close watch over Rin," Tamotsu said to him. "She may have been affected by the toxin, whatever it was."

"Oh I know what it was," Jaken declared as they were leaving. "I'd recognize that foul stench anywhere."

After his lord had gone, Jaken returned to the front room to repair the disorder left by his quarrel with Kagura. He ran his hands over the scorch marks he had left on the wall, and believed that the demoness was dead. The notion was so sudden and so certain that he took it for a premonition. Finally, he too sought his bed. As he tried to calm his mind, Jaken realized he understood what Rin meant. When he closed his eyes he saw the great plum of destruction again, and he felt an unexplained sense of fear and dread. In the night he dreamed he saw a great chasm before his feet, so black that it devoured light. Behind him he heard the light patter of Rin's bare feet, but he could not turn. He heard himself saying, "I'm not blind. I can see it coming."

***

Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu arrived at the center of the destruction before sundown. The devastation was unbelievable. Even Sesshoumaru, whose own life had been a tornado, carving ruin into the earth, had never seen anything like it. This place had been a flat plateau settled among the mountains, but now it was battered and dented like an old shield. There was not a tree standing for almost a mile in any direction.

"It looks like an enormous foot just came down out of the sky and squashed the place like a bug," Tamotsu commented.

Sesshoumaru had to admit the analogy was accurate. He had hoped to be able to discern what had happened, and, more to the point, to track down the demon he knew had to be at the center of it.

He certainly could smell Naraku; the scent was everywhere, which was just the problem. It had become the air, the clouds, the rain, and the dirt. It was impossible to pin it down. Amongst the gray gloom, a glint of gold nearby caught his eye and he went to it.

It was a monk's staff, lodged in a tree. He would not touch it.

Tamotsu wandered about, sniffing.

"I smell _something_ else here," he said. "But I can't tell what it is."

"It's Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru told him. "I think he died here."

Tamotsu looked at him. "Should I congratulate you?"

"Don't be absurd," Sesshoumaru snapped. "That such a person would kill him. How despicable. Even in death, that half-demon is so utterly worthless."

Sesshoumaru noticed that his cousin was carrying something.

"What is that?" he asked, indicating with a glance what appeared to be a boomerang as tall as a man.

"I'm not really sure," his cousin answered. "I think it's a weapon. It's made of demon bones."

"Yes," Sesshoumaru mused. "I remember one of them carried that. I suppose that means they were all here, and are all dead."

Tamotsu nodded.

"It seems upset," he said, meaning the weapon.

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow, but did not comment.

They stood in the quiet ruin, drenched by the foul rain but indifferent to it.

"Do you feel that?" Tamotsu asked finally.

"What?"

"Like Rin said," he answered. "It feels like something really bad happened here, like…the sun will never shine again."

Sesshoumaru snorted.

"I did not think you the type to entertain sentimental melancholy. Perhaps next time I should pass your hovel without stopping."

"I certainly wouldn't complain," Tamotsu muttered under his breath.

Sesshoumaru looked at him.

"You only want me to come along when it's on or near the Hyouden," he complained. "I never get to go anywhere interesting."

"Are you suggesting you never travel without me?" Sesshoumaru demanded, incredulous.

"No, but of course it would be more interesting with you, dear cousin," he smirked.

Sesshoumaru looked bored, and turned away.

"Who would want to be seen anywhere with you?" he said over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Tamotsu called after him.

"Home," Sesshoumaru answered. "I cannot track Naraku. It is enough to know that Inuyasha and his companions here met their end."

The matter appeared to be closed. Tamotsu strapped the extraordinary weapon across his back and followed his cousin through the air, heading south again.

"What is that?" he exclaimed only a few minutes later. He veered away and landed on the ground again.

They had come to a river, a small one, which used to snaked around the plateau. Now its banks were already swollen with the deluge, and parts of it had turned into waterfalls where the rain was pouring over fallen rocks and ruined trees.

Tamotsu made his way toward something that lay on the banks, half submerged in mud.

Sesshoumaru was annoyed, but his curiosity got the better of him. He went to the riverbank.

Tamotsu carefully turned over the object of interest, and then let out a startled oath.

"Look at this!" he exclaimed.

Sesshoumaru bent over the form. It was a human, a woman. Beyond that, he could tell little else about her. Her body was covered with blood, so much so that one could not discern the location of her wounds. He was forced to lean very close to her.

Thus he learned two things. The first was that this woman was the companion he had often seen with his half-brother, the one who could use sacred arrows. The second was that she was still alive. Tamotsu gaped at him.

"How can that be? How can she possibly live?"

"I do not know," Sesshoumaru answered. He stood up and turned away.

"You're surely not going to just walk off and leave her here!"

Sesshoumaru looked genuinely surprised.

"Why would I not?" he asked. "This woman is no concern of mine."

Tamotsu stood up to face him, glaring.

"I really had no idea you were so stupid."

Sesshoumaru answered only with an icy stare.

"Your enemy still lives. I think we can be sure of that. He clearly wants this woman dead. Therefore, you _don't_ want that. It's really quite simple."

"I will defeat Naraku," Sesshoumaru shrugged. "This woman has nothing to do with it."

"Just out of curiosity, Sesshoumaru," Tamotsu retorted. "How long have you been saying that now?"

"Saying what?"

"I will defeat Naraku," Tamotsu replied, imitating Sesshoumaru's cold and level voice.

Now it was Sesshoumaru's turn to glare.

"Well," Tamotsu went on. "I was just curious. Because it seems to me that you've been saying that for about five or six years."

"So?" Sesshoumaru still sounded indifferent. "What is that to me?"

"Don't you ever get tired of saying and doing the same things, all the time?"

"That is ridiculous. _I _will defeat Naraku."

"Sweet bounding buddhas, are you really still saying that?"

Sesshoumaru did not answer.

"Fine," his cousin said at last. "I'll take her myself."

He moved to pick up the miko.

"In the first place," Sesshoumaru interjected. "If you attempt to move her, you will most likely kill her. In the second, what do you intend to do? Nurse her in that ratty shack of yours?"

"If need be."

"You will do no such thing." Now Sesshoumaru's voice was threatening. "If you have her, Rin will hear of it."

"So?"

"She will insist that you bring her to the Hyouden."

"Well, at least there's one person of intelligence in that house. Thank you, Sesshoumaru, you comfort me."

"I'm warning you, Tamotsu."

"Oh, give me a break," his cousin said. "Since when does Rin-chan rule the Hyouden?"

He went to the miko and began lifting her head.

"Stop right there," Sesshoumaru ordered. "I will not listen to your crying for the next century about how you killed a defenseless priestess."

"She's a priestess?" Tamotsu was surprised. "How do you know? And I would not cry!"

"I know," Sesshoumaru walked to the woman and bent to pick her up, "because she has shot sacred arrows at me."

"Oh," Tamotsu considered that. "So, I guess…it's complicated?"

"Not really."

"Why are _you_ allowed to pick her up?"

Sesshoumaru shifted the miko in his arms, taking pains to avoid getting blood and filth on his clothes. He had limited success.

"Because I know how to handle wounded."

"Where did you learn that?"

"My father tried to teach us both," Sesshoumaru answered pointedly. "I paid attention. You chased women."

Tamotsu leaned back and looked up at the rain, rubbing his belly.

"Oh yeah," he remembered, leering. It was clear he believed he had come out the better.

"Those were the days, eh, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru ignored him.

"It's a good thing that you sent Rin to her bed," Tamotsu commented as they flew away from the wreckage of the plateau.

Sesshoumaru glanced down at the mangled mess he was carrying, and had to agree.

When they arrived at the Hyouden, it was late, and a dismal night had taken over the land. Sesshoumaru laid the woman on a bed in an unused room on the upper floor. It took most of the night to disrobe and clean her, and to dress her wounds. Not knowing anything specific about humans, Sesshoumaru tried to give her a medicine that would ease the pain of a demon, but it evaporated as soon as it touched her lips.

"What the…" Tamotsu wondered, bent over her.

"She is purifying it," Sesshoumaru said.

"Without even knowing it?"

"So it would seem. How bothersome."

He rose and left the room.

Tamotsu stayed next to the woman, speculating if Sesshoumaru would get bored and not return. He leaned closer to her, trying to ascertain what she looked like. Now that the blood had been cleansed away, her wounds did not appear as bad as before. Her face was still bruised and swollen, and her breathing was labored and shallow. She looked as though she might have been passably pretty, for a human. With great care, he lifted an eyelid. The eye was rolled back and she did not respond.

He doubted then that she would live through the night. The worst, by far, was her right arm. It was so blackened that it appeared charred. He wondered if she would be able to keep it.

After some time, Sesshoumaru reentered the room, carrying a stone bowl and a black, wooden box. He kneeled beside the woman, and mixed several things in the bowl. Tamotsu tried to pay attention.

"This is a more natural tincture," Sesshoumaru told him.

He gave this mixture to her and it did not evaporate. After a minute or two, her breathing came easier.

"That is all that can be done," he told his cousin. "The rest is up to her."

"What about this?" Tamotsu asked, indicating the black lines that ran throughout her body, seeming to flow under her skin and to pool in the mortifying arm.

"That is miasma—Naraku's filth. A miko could remove it, but I cannot."

Sesshoumaru stood watching the priestess for a few moments, then shrugged and rose to leave.

"Rin-chan?" Tamotsu glanced toward the door.

Sesshoumaru turned to see that Rin was standing in the doorway, clutching her robe closed and carrying an oil light. Her feet were bare and her hair, loose and unkempt, fell to her shoulders.

"Why are you here?"

Rin did not answer. She walked past them without looking at them, and went straight to the woman's side. Then she turned and faced Sesshoumaru.

"This is your doing!" she cried, leveling a finger at her lord.

Tamotsu gaped at her.

"You had the power to stop this! If no one else did! Do you see now what your pride has done?"

Jaken had followed Rin into the room and he was standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. When he heard what she said, he began hopping up and down.

"Rin!" he screamed. "What are you thinking? Insolent girl!"

"Jaken, be still," Sesshoumaru's voice seemed unconcerned. "That is not Rin."

Jaken stopped short, and stared at the girl. He noticed her eyes were as wide as the full moon, but they seemed unaware and empty. He watched in horror as whiteness flowed over her. Already, the tips of her jet-black hair had lost all color. She was filled with a cold light, like the winter moon, and she brought an icy breath into the room.

Tamotsu was transfixed. He could not help staring at the bracelet around her wrist. A scarlet star-stone was set in the middle of a silver clasp, and it was throbbing. He felt the need to tear his eyes away from it and behold the possessed girl, but he could not do it. He needed to see if the stone would actually grow.

"You think I should feel guilt for this girl?" Sesshoumaru addressed Rin, or whatever was inside her.

She did not answer.

"Who is she?" Sesshoumaru went on. "Who is she, that I should suffer a prick of conscience?"

Rin laughed. The sound was hollow and far way, and not like the adolescent girl at all. Jaken shuddered.

"You will learn, my son." Rin answered.

She had grown taller and her hair was almost completely white. Markings appeared on her face.

Tamotsu tore his eyes from the bracelet to look up at her, and immediately he dropped to his knees and put his face to the floor.

"Oh, dear spirits in heaven!" he cried. "Chiyoko-sama!"

Rin's possessed mouth continued.

"Your perceived control over your destiny is a lie, Sesshoumaru, one you will unlearn in bitterness. You cannot now imagine the suffering you have brought upon yourself."

The spirit's expression softened on Rin's features. She reached out a hand to him.

"I would spare you of it," she said, her tone more gentle. "If I could. Just because you do not believe it, does not mean that I do not mean it."

Sesshoumaru said nothing.

"_Worry not my daughters,_

_Worry not my sons._

_We will all go bare and swim in the air,_

_When all is said and done."_

"Sesshoumaru-sama…" Jaken murmured nervously.

The room became warm again, once more filled with the light of the fire. The moonlight drained away from Rin, and she drooped like a flower, sagging to her knees.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin's breathing was rapid and heavy. "Sesshoumaru-sama!"

Sesshoumaru went to her and took her hand. He removed the bracelet and threw it into the fire.

Confused and frightened, Rin looked around the room. For the first time, she noticed the woman lying in the far corner and she let out a low cry, running to her side. She knelt beside her and began weeping.

"Kagome-chan!" she cried. "Oh, Kagome-chan!"

Tamotsu's eyes went from Rin to Sesshoumaru and back again. A dozen questions leaped to his lips, but nothing came out. It was Jaken who broke the silence.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, those were Shinme-sama's words!"

Sesshoumaru remembered the letter, tied to his door with horsehair only a few days before.

"Shinme? The Horse-Queen?" Tamotsu asked. "What does she have to do with this?"

"That is indeed a valid question," Sesshoumaru mused, half to himself. He turned to leave.

"Jaken, you will go to the horse demons and bring their queen here."

"Ah! Yes, my lord!" Jaken bowed, though Sesshoumaru had already left the room. He turned to Tamotsu, who was still staring wide-eyed at Rin, who was still weeping.

"Who is Chiyoko?" he asked.

Tamotsu was barely able to understand him. He answered in a dazed and distant voice.

"She is my aunt. Sesshoumaru's mother."

Jaken did not have much time to waste being astounded, and he rather doubted Tamotsu's account of things. At any rate, Shinme was clearly involved somehow and he believed that, in her wisdom, she would be able to shine a light on the matter. He respected her most among living things that were not Sesshoumaru. He took up his staff and left without carrying anything else.

Meanwhile, Rin still wept.

Tamotsu finally shook off his bewilderment and went to her.

"Rin, look here."

She raised her swollen eyes. He showed her the ingredients Sesshoumaru had brought into the room and how to mix them.

"I would give that to her at least once a day, as much as you can get her to swallow."

"Are you leaving, then?" she took the bowl from him in slow, stunted movements.

"Yes. Your lord said a priestess might be able to help her. I'm going to find one and bring her back here."

Rin managed to smile. "Thank you, Tamotsu-sama."

"Goodbye, Rin-chan," he went to the window, and was gone. Rin did not see him again for almost three months.

She sat beside Kagome for the rest of the night. Dawn crept upon the house almost unnoticed, as the light grew with imperceptible slowness amongst the gray ruin of the cloudy sky. She managed to give Kagome medicine two more times that day, while she herself did not leave the room to drink or to eat. Jaken was not there. Sesshoumaru was occupied. Rin waited.

***

Jaken's journey took him twice as long as he had expected. The weather was abominable. He spent two days looking for the roaming Karauma, and in that time the rain did not cease once. At first, the toxin slowed him. He tried not to show it (even though no one was around), but it sickened him and made him feel weary and hopeless.

"…_like I'll never be content again…"_

Jaken shook his head. _Silly girl_.

By the second day, the rain became more pure. Traveling was now not so burdensome; it was just unpleasant.

He did not find the horse demons where he had last seen them, at the foothills of the Shikoku. He searched high and low for the Karauma, or for a demon or human who could tell of their comings and goings. The land, however, was in disarray. The earthquake seemed to have maddened beasts, some of which charged recklessly at anything that moved. The human settlements on or near the Hyouden had already been thinned, and now the people ran and hid themselves at the mere hint of the non-human.

Jaken arrived at one village that had been abandoned altogether, though he spotted someone moving among the wreckage, turning over barrels and shaking out jars.

"Hey!" he called. "You there!"

The person turned in surprise. It was a young man, but when Jaken came closer he saw that it was an adolescent hawk demon. The Youshun took one look at Jaken and bolted.

"No, wait! I need to ask you something! Wait!"

The youth jumped and transformed into a hawk in midair. He flew away with as much as speed as possible.

"Damn it!" Jaken shouted.

He beat the staff against the nearest tree, shrieking curses.

Finally, exhausted by his tantrum, he sat with a plop on the wet ground. He was considering what he would say to Sesshoumaru, should he return empty-handed, when he noticed a mark in the ground, directly in front of his feet. It was the impression of a horse's hoof.

_Doesn't mean anything_, he thought. There were plenty of horses in the area, not connected to the Karauma. He noticed that the tracks continued, leading into the forest.

Having no other lead, Jaken followed the tracks through the trees—tangled, dark things that grew close to the sea. The tracks wound on and on through the woods, until at last the trees thinned and gave way. Jaken had arrived at the shore.

He saw upon it many horses, running wild among the breaking waves. Some were mere horses, but others were horse demons. Some of the demons were in horse form and ran alongside their charges; others walked about clad in leather, with long black hair and deep-set eyes.

As his feet touched the black sand, a tall demoness approached him. Her hair was pulled back severely and tied with a leather thong at the nape of her neck.

"Jaken-sama," she addressed him. "I have been waiting for you."

"In that case, my lady Shinme," he answered. "I'm sorry it took me so long to find you."

"We had to cleanse away that rain," she said, nodding her head toward the misty sea. "It sickened the horses."

"Speaking of 'sickening', there's a human at the Hyouden…er…another one, I mean."

"Yes," she said sadly. "I know."

Jaken waved his arms.

"What? What do you mean, 'you know'? How do you—?"

"This is why you've come, is it not? This is why Sesshoumaru has sent you for me?"

Jaken stopped short.

"Ah, right, that's right. Well, let's go then."

As they walked, Jaken related to her the events of the previous day, including the possession of Rin.

"It wasn't you, was it?" he asked her.

"Of course not," she said firmly. "I would never take such liberties."

Jaken inquired about the affairs of the Karauma. Shinme told him that in some ways they remained the same, but in others there had been changes, and little for the better. Conflict surrounded and hounded them, and humans in the area ran at the mere rumor of their coming, though they had never meant any harm to humans, or to any living thing.

"Did you know about the spider demons?" she asked him.

Jaken thought back to their survey of the lands, but had to admit he knew little about it.

"It is said that they left their caves, though they had never done so before, and everyone knows how much they hated the outside world. They raided and terrorized the human villages along the ways, and took many humans with them as captives."

"Where did they go?"

"No one knows for sure," the queen answered. "Northwards, I think."

"Sesshoumaru-sama should never have allowed them to stay on our lands in the first place!"

"_Our_ lands?" Shinme sounded amused.

"You know what I mean," Jaken flushed.

She also told him that the Youshun had turned savage once the spider demons had departed. The Karauma were forced to fight an almost constant battle to simply maintain their herds and lands.

"Is there a connection, between that and the spider demons?" Jaken asked her.

"I believe so."

As they made their way along the trail it came to a steep slope, and one of Jaken's feet slipped on the slick mud. Shinme caught him before he landed on his back and helped him set himself right again.

"Damn this rain!" he fumed.

"Worse things are coming," she said, her tone enigmatic.

"Now that's the sort of thing that's starting to give me the creeps. What do you mean?"

"We must make haste," was all she would say.

They reached the house within an hour or two, just as the sun was setting on the second day of Jaken's errand. He took her into a large room on the bottom floor and offered her hot tea, which she humbly accepted. He left her there and went looking for Sesshoumaru.

He found the lord of the West in a pensive state, standing in the rain on a balcony on the second floor.

"Ah, Sesshoumaru-sama, Shinme-sama is here."

Sesshoumaru cast him a sidelong glance, but did not move.

"Jaken," he said at last. "Am I to blame?"

"My lord?" Jaken turned. "For what could you bear blame?"

Sesshoumaru did not answer; he turned and reentered the house.

When Shinme saw Sesshoumaru come into the room, she set down her saucer of tea and bowed low, her long ponytail falling beside her face.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, it is an honor."

Sesshoumaru sat across from her and wasted no time.

"You will tell me what you know about that woman upstairs, about the explosion that occurred yesterday, and about my mother."

Jaken thought that Shinme appeared to be a trifle nervous, something he had never seen before. She took a deep breath.

"I tried to warn you," she said in almost an inaudible whisper.

Sesshoumaru rose to his feet so quickly that Jaken jumped, spilling his tea.

"I will not listen to that again, certainly not from you!" Sesshoumaru declared with uncharacteristic heat.

Now there could be no doubt that Shinme was nervous. She looked down at her hands and licked her lips.

"Yes, my lord," she said. "I should not have said that."

"But not because it isn't true, correct?" Sesshoumaru's tone was acid.

Shinme did not answer.

Sesshoumaru sighed.

"Speak."

"Lord Sesshoumaru may remember that I have had the faculty for prophecy in the past."

Sesshoumaru's expression did not give an indication either way, so Shinme went on.

"But these visions are not certain, are not always clear, and though I can feel that others are out there—others who see the same things, who can feel the same…"

She floundered for a moment.

"It feels like lightening, about to strike—a terrible storm is coming. I know of others who can feel it. Indeed some are moving against it, some are moving to help it. But I do not know all of their identities."

Sesshoumaru continued to stare at her and say nothing.

"Therefore," she continued, "Your mother may be one, and she may have seen the same visions as I. But I have no knowledge of that."

"What _do_ you know?" Sesshoumaru demanded testily. "Anything at all, for certain?"

"I know I have come here to behold the everlasting light."

"What light?"

"It's not a 'what'," she answered. "It's a 'who'. I have come to lay eyes on the Everlasting Light."

Sesshoumaru stared at her.

"She is laid in the chamber upstairs," Shinme explained.

"You cannot be serious."

Shinme did not answer.

"Did I not also receive a prophetic title?" he asked, not concealing his mocking tone.

Shinme's voice became quite again.

"I have seen and heard you called 'Son of Death' and the 'General'."

Sesshoumaru expression was icy.

"I can see that this is all nonsense and therefore a waste of my time," he said. "If you so desire to look upon a dying woman, Jaken will show you the way. Then you have leave to depart."

Shinme bowed low again.

"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama."

Sesshoumaru rose to leave the room, but when he got to the doorway he half-turned.

"Have you nothing else to say?"

Shinme hesitated. Then her expression became one of resignation.

"Do not fight it, Sesshoumaru. When the time comes, when your path is laid before your feet, do not fight it. You would only add to your misery."

Sesshoumaru scoffed and left the room without another word.

After he had gone, Jaken turned to their guest.

"You forget yourself, Shinme-sama," he said. "And you do not know to whom you are speaking. It is not in Sesshoumaru-sama's nature to surrender."

"Yes," she said sadly. "I know."

She rose to her feet.

"I apologize, Jaken-sama," she said. "Please, would you bring me to her?"

Shinme entered the room where Rin still kept a constant vigil over the injured woman. When Jaken saw her, he scowled.

"Rin!" he shouted. "Why are you still here? Have you slept? Have you eaten?"

Rin shook her head, her expression numb and dazed.

"So you are Rin no Reijin," Shinme said, looking at her. "I have heard reports of you, but they do not do you justice."

Rin and Jaken stared at her, uncomprehending.

"Your beauty is renowned throughout these lands," she explained. "'Rin no Reijin' and 'Yukionna no Hyouden', they say."

Rin did not know what to say, and Jaken sputtered.

"What?" he cried. "This girl?"

Shinme only laid a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with tender pity, then she went to Kagome's side.

"Can you help her, my mistress?" Rin pleaded.

Shinme laid a gentle hand on Rin's head.

"No, my dearest. In fact, I must admit I have come more for my own benefit."

Saying that, she laid her hand on Kagome's forehead. She stayed that way for a few minutes, staring at the girl. Jaken thought she appeared to be listening for far off sounds. Finally, she rose again.

"A terrible time of strife and woe is before you," she said to them both. "And I cannot spare you. My people will endure their own sorrows, and I will be hard pressed. Still, send for me if you have great need."

Jaken and Rin could think of nothing to say. The events of the past two days had left them in a trance, like people who walk in their sleep. Shinme left them there.

The full significance of Shinme's warning would become apparent all too soon. The rains fell without mercy and Sesshoumaru, Jaken, and Rin became besieged in a kingdom of death. Over the next few weeks the faint hint of decay was carried in on the cold, misty air that blew through the house no matter how tight they barred the doors and windows. By the end of the first month, Rin could look from her window and watch dead cattle and horses float into the basin. Jaken feared that Rin would catch a pestilence, and he dosed her liberally with herbs and tonics.

Kagome's breathing became easy, and her wounds closed. But the miasma remained and she did not wake up, and Tamotsu had not returned.

Sesshoumaru did not appear concerned. It was unusual for him to be at the Hyouden for so long, but he did not even notice. He told himself that the rain would make traveling a bother, and he might as well wait until it cleared.

But it didn't clear. After the second month, when the stench of death was beginning to seriously irritate him, a deep rumbling heralded a new catastrophe. At least once a day the house would shudder, as some bit of earth in the surrounding hills surrendered at last to the torrent and crumbled into the valley below. Jaken reported that the cellar area was about halfway submerged, that most of the food was not fit to eat, and that the structure itself was in danger of sliding off the mountainside.

One day Jaken awoke to find water encroaching upon the main floor. A thin sheet ebbed from the rear door and down the main hall and lapped at the threshold of the kitchen. Sesshoumaru found him in a panic, piling sacks of sand in front of the doors.

"This is terrible!" the toad demon cried. "For centuries this house has stood here, and it will fall to fucking water!"

Sesshoumaru observed the activity of his vassal in a detached manner, until the wind of the words somehow reached him across a continent of pride. The house was not really all that important to him, but was he prepared to surrender it to the weather?

"Where did you get these barriers?" he asked.

"Out in one of the outbuildings, the larger one. It's not flooded, yet. I think they were for a fortress of defense at some point."

Jaken huffed and puffed while he tried to lift sacks over his head and talk at the same time. When he did not receive any response, he looked over his shoulder and saw that Sesshoumaru was gone. He shrugged. It did not surprise him that Sesshoumaru was bored with the situation, however dire it might seem to him.

Less than five minutes later, however, he was surprised when a sack sailed over his head and landed with a loud clap in the watery hallway. He looked up and, to his amazement, he saw his lord—stripped to the waist and hauling and tossing sacks along the doors. Jaken stared at him in open surprise for a moment, not just that he was performing a labor so banal, but that he did it remarkably well with one arm.

The two demons struggled against the encroaching water, while it insisted on rising anyway.

"Rin and that miko will need to eat," Jaken announced unexpectedly, amidst their labors.

Sesshoumaru stopped and stared at him.

"I will go down and salvage what food is left, before the cellar is lost completely."

Sesshoumaru followed him without comment.

They made it about a third of the way down the stairs before their feet landed in water. Sesshoumaru lifted his hand and whipped a line of green light around the room. Everywhere it reflected on water below, dancing in a rippling mirror.

Jaken stripped off his clothing and jumped in. He was obliged to swim to the shelves. Once there, the problem of swimming and carrying food presented itself. He hung on the shelf, treading water, and cringing at small things that floated or swam past him, when something heavy and hard nudged him in the back. He turned and saw a wide and flat piece of wood floating in the water. He began piling various items (mostly dried meat, and some rice) on top of it.

Sesshoumaru watched as Jaken rescued everything that was worth saving, paddling his webbed feet behind the miniature barge and pushing it to the stairs again. The little demon swam around it and pulled it as close the stairs as possible. He was trying to secure it, when Sesshoumaru reached over him and lifted the wood, barters and all, up out of the water with no effort.

Jaken placed the goods on the highest shelf in the kitchen, knowing that if the water reached that place, it would not matter anyway.

In the meantime, Rin maintained her vigilance over Kagome, and for a long while showed no outward signs of concern except for her patient. But the gray, the death, and the privation began to wear on her, and Sesshoumaru thought he could watch her age. Her customary bemused and indifferent self was also fading away. Her eyes were always red and swollen because, unbeknownst to Sesshoumaru, she wept often.

Out of depressed listlessness, Jaken wandered into the sickroom one day and caught her sobbing.

"What is the matter with you?" he demanded.

Rin jerked her head up, and her eyes widened. She was bent over Kagome.

"I don't know, Jaken-sama," she whispered. "Sometimes, when I look at her, I feel so dreadful, as if the whole thing is my fault!"

Jaken stared at her, then looked at Kagome. She appeared almost whole, except for her right arm that bore an angry red and white scar, drawn from her shoulder to her wrist like a lightning bolt. Traces of miasma still remained, like black serpents hidden here and there beneath the skin.

"Empty-headed little girl," Jaken scolded her. "How can this possibly be your fault?"

"I can't explain it, but I know I can't bear it," tears fell from her cheeks again. "Her scars are marks in my soul, and I can't bear the thought of my soul—scarred and hideous!"

She continued to sob, and Jaken said nothing. He waited, and wished for dry air.

There had been intermittent periods of drizzle, but never for more than an hour or two, and then the deluge would start again. Then one day, after about three months, the rain lessened to a gray mist that lasted all day. Sesshoumaru had the notion that, since he had seen the event that seemed to announce the rains, he may see something that would proclaim their end. He stood all day on a gallery overlooking the northern plains, which were now a vast marsh.

Nothing occurred. When the light of day had long disappeared, Jaken joined him. He complained that Rin would not listen to him and was refusing to seek her bed.

"Kagome has stirred today, and so Rin will not leave her side."

"Stirred?" Sesshoumaru could not hide his interest.

"Yes, and her eyes have fluttered a bit, like they're trying to open. She's muttering too, but she's still out of it."

Jaken held out his little hand.

"And look at that," he said. "The rain is barely coming down at all. Do I dare hope that—

He stopped and looked up at Sesshoumaru, who was looking down at him. A flame ignited in both their eyes.

"You don't think—"

But Sesshoumaru was already ahead of him. He went back into the house and made his way to the sickroom at almost a dead run. He burst in, causing Rin to jump violently. She had been sitting beside Kagome, swaying and nearly falling over from exhaustion.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!"

Sesshoumaru went straight to Kagome's side and took hold of her shoulders.

"Kagome, wake up. I'm ordering you to wake up."

Rin was alarmed, but she did not dare intervene.

"No more delay. You must wake up and you must do it now."

He lifted her to a sitting position, and Rin lost her restraint.

"My lord, _please_!" she exclaimed.

Sesshoumaru ignored her.

"Kagome, I will not tell you again."

He shook her, and, without warning, her eyes flew open. He watched as gray clouds withdrew from her gaze.

"Kikyou…" she mumbled. "Kikyou, love is all you need…"

Then she saw him.

Kagome let out a startled cry and threw up her arms. A rosy light began in her chest and traveled to her hands. Sesshoumaru stepped back.

"What's happening?" Kagome cried, covering her head with her bandage-wrapped arms. "Where's Inuyasha?!"

Jaken, meanwhile, had gone to the windows. They were barred against the rain. He dismantled the covering and yanked the window open so hard that he tore it out.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" he cried, panting. "Look, stars! Blessed kami, stars, stars!"

They looked out. The sky was clear, as if there had never been any such thing as clouds. Not only were stars revealed to the earth, but also it seemed as though there were millions more than before, and that they were closer and brighter than ever.

Jaken turned to Kagome, who was staring at them, speechless and wild-eyed.

"If I had known that," he declared. "I would have set fire to your ass to wake you up, months ago!"

***

[End of Chapter 13]

[Next chapter: Kagome]


	14. Kagome

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book One: The Dreaming World **

**Chapter 14: Kagome**

_"You said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!" – Emily Bronte_

***

There was no way for Kagome to know then how long she spent walking in the dreaming world, but the reader knows by now that it was three months, one week, and two days. For most of that time, she believed she was dead.

There was fire, and ash, and the terrible knowledge that Naraku would absorb her and carry her tormented soul in the house of his inferno for an eternity. She called for Kikyou and she closed her hands around something hard and round, like a marble.

It wasn't the Jewel, but she tried to pull it toward her anyway.

Something broke, something shattered. Then there was nothing, but black.

Then she was sitting in the sun, on the green, green grass. Inuyasha was perched on a branch in a tree above her, fuming about something. Sango and Miroku were sitting apart, talking together in murmuring tones. White daisies were piled in her lap and Shippou was handing her some more. She sensed that Inuyasha wanted to leave.

Then he was on the ground with his sword drawn, his mouth twisted in hatred.

"What is it?" Kagome's voice sounded shrill in her own ears, but she did not understand why she had asked that.

"Naraku!" someone answered.

"No," Kagome said. "No, it isn't!"

She stood up and her friends turn to stare at her.

"No it isn't!" she shouted at them. "Don't you see? Why are we here again?"

Her friends just stared at her, and then Sango handed her something. Kagome looked down and saw that she was holding a stick with a grilled fish on it.

"Is one enough, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked her.

They were gathered around a campfire, and night had wrapped around their shoulders like a cloak. Inuyasha sat against a tree, tapping his foot in the air and chewing on fish.

"We'll start going north tomorrow," he said, still chewing. "We'll find leads about Naraku."

"And then what?" Kagome asked him, staring at the food like it was a charred alien.

Shippou looked up from his meal in surprise.

"What do you mean, 'then what'?" Inuyasha said. "_Then_ we defeat Naraku."

"No," Kagome shook her head, tears landing on her knees.

"Kagome-chan?" Sango put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"No!" Kagome screamed, throwing the fish into the fire. "I don't want to do this anymore!"

She stood up and backed away. They were staring at her, and maybe calling her name, but she did not heed them because she knew they weren't real. She turned and ran into the night. Coming to a hilltop, Kagome looked up at the pitiless stars.

"If this is my hell," she cried, "my punishment, well, then fuck you!"

Then she was sitting in her mother's kitchen.

The first sound she heard was a ticking clock. Hanging by the humming white refrigerator was one of those uncanny, black and white cats, with enormous eyes that swung back and forth every second. Kagome wondered what possessed her mother to put such a hideous item on the wall. Then a new sound made her jump. It was sudden music, hissing and distorted, coming from somewhere in the room. She searched with her eyes and found an old alarm clock radio, sitting on the counter next to the toaster oven.

_I look at the world and I notice its turning…_

The numbers on the clock glowed like burning embers—_like Naraku's _eyes—she thought, before chasing the thought away like a wayward cat at her door.

Her mother entered the room, and Kagome stopped breathing.

"Mama," she cried, bursting into tears.

But Kagome's mother gave no sign that she even saw her. She struggled with a heavy shoulder bag, bringing it to the table and dumping out the contents with relief. Books cascaded out of the bag, tumbling to the table, chairs, and some hitting the floor. Higurashi bent and picked them up, and began stacking all of them into neat rows.

_With every mistake, we must surely be learning…_

"Mama," Kagome said again, in a small, trembling voice.

Higurashi did not look up. She sat in a chair and began studying one of the books.

_I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping…_

Time crawled on. Kagome sat quietly beside her mother for hours, convinced that the poor woman could not see her because she was dead.

Higurashi read through most of the books that night. Kagome sat next to her, trying to persuade the air to move only a little, trying to reach her, to comfort her. She lowered her head and wept for her futility.

Memories returned to her unbidden. She remembered visiting the beach when she was small, walking behind her mother and trying to match her stride, leaping from step to step.

"Oh, mama," she cried. "I'm so sorry. I've always been so useless. I'm so sorry!"

Then, when the cat told her it was midnight, Yuka walked into the room, much to Kagome's amazement.

Kagome leapt to her feet without thinking.

"Yuka-chan!"

Of course, Yuka did not see her. She offered Higurashi some tea, which was politely refused. Then Kagome's oldest friend began pressing the woman for information about Kagome. Where is she? When is she coming back? Why does no one hear from her? And Kagome realized with a frightened confusion that Yuka was living at the shrine, and that she had not covered her tracks as much as she had thought.

Kagome became annoyed. Yuka was pushing her mother for answers she would never have. She was only making this situation more difficult.

"Leave her be, Yuka!" she shouted, but Yuka gave no sign that she had heard her.

In frustration, Kagome swung her arm at a stack of books, hoping to knock at least one of them down to stop the conversation. Nothing happened to the books, but the air of her exasperation seemed to reach her mother. Higurashi turned on Yuka with virulence and ordered her to bed.

Kagome realized at once that she might have made a mistake. She watched the two women look at each other for a moment, only a brief moment, in silence. She watched as a sharp shadow fell like a blade between them.

The air became black and orange. Higurashi, Yuka, and the kitchen were gone, and Kagome was standing in the dark. It was quiet, and cold, and after a few moments Kagome detected the sound of trickling water.

Her eyes adjusted to the light, and Kagome realized she was standing in a cave, where there many others, some lying down, some sitting. The people were ragged, starved, and altogether wretched. Someone was sitting on the ground right next to her, and she lowered to her knees to speak to them.

Her throat closed against a tidal wave of tears. It was Inuyasha. His robes were caked with mud and a rose colored moss grew on his hair. His hands, which he wrung in front of his lowered head, were filthy and caked over with old blood.

"Oh, Inuyasha," she sobbed. "Oh, Inuyasha!"

She realized the voice was not coming from her own throat. Another girl was sitting in front of Inuyasha, trying to reach him through his insanity. She was dressed as a miko, and Kagome felt positive she had seen her somewhere before. The girl reached out for Inuyasha and took his hands.

"Pretend I'm her," she said. "Pretend I'm her and say it now."

Kagome's heart sank. _Oh no, no don't. I can't stand it._

"I'm sorry," she heard him murmur.

Kagome stopped breathing.

"I'm sorry I was never good enough for you," he went on without mercy.

In the new prison cell of her private universe, Kagome screamed.

Inuyasha wept along with the young priestess, unaware that Kagome was soaking his shoulder with ethereal tears.

She cried for what felt like hours, and when her sobbing subsided she noticed it was quiet. She lifted her head and found that Inuyasha and the familiar miko were gone.

Kagome was beginning to get used to this, but she still wondered to herself, _who's driving this bus?_

This time the light grew around her, and she noticed with a start that she was standing in the rain. She cast her eyes upward and saw an ominous black, gray, and red sky. She cast her eyes downward and saw Kagura crumpled at her feet. A tree was on her back, but Kagome could see her ashen face.

With a strangled cry, Kagome dropped to her knees. Why? Why was she here? How could _they_ be so cruel?

"It's not my fault!" Kagome screamed without making a sound. "I did my best, I'm not to blame!"

"Kagura! Can you hear me? Say something!"

Kagome looked around for the source of that voice. Her heart leapt in her chest when she saw Shippou, bloody and ragged, stumbling toward her over rocks and fallen trees. He began to struggle with the debris, trying to free Kagura, who did not respond. Kagome stared at the scene and did not know whether to feel triumph or despair.

He struggled in vain, his feet often slipping, sending him to the mud on his face. After the third time he did not get up again, but lay there, staring. It seemed as though he looked right at Kagome, but she knew he did not see her.

"Shippou," she whispered, coming to his side. "Don't give up, Shippou. Come on now, get up, you can do it!"

Kagome was shocked when he stood up and transformed into an ogre. She began to fear that she was in a nightmare, and almost started to run away, but in this form Shippou was more than strong enough to lift the tree.

Kagome watched him, returned to his normal form, crawl to Kagura. She watched him struggle to wake her. She heard him scream at her.

_Kagome is dead! She is fucking dead!_

Kagome realized then that she could not feel the rain. Had she ever heard Shippou use that word before? Was he this tall when she had died?

She looked at them again and Shippou was standing once more. He was reaching for Kagura. Kagome, without thinking, went to his side and reached for Kagura's arm. She could not be sure if she had truly helped pull the demoness up from ground, but it felt as though she had.

She needed to know what they would do next—where they would go and what they would say to each other. It would be a long time, however, but she found out anything about it, because the next moment found her standing in a hut where the mud floors were caked in blue bellflowers. In the center of the one room was a bed raised on layers of bamboo. Miroku was on the bed, sitting up on his elbows, talking to someone in front of him. Kagome looked at the foot of the bed and saw another young priestess, that again she recognized by could not place. She could see Sango, lying beside him, so wasted Kagome feared she might be dead. She was facing away from her, and Kagome could see the girl's spine like a column of thread spools.

_My god, what have I done?_

She had not heard what passed between Miroku and the young priestess. Miroku put his feet on the ground, and hung his head in his hands.

"It's been raining," the woman said to him.

"Raining…" Miroku did not seem to understand what she meant.

"Since before you came here. Since the explosion."

"It's been raining for a month?" Miroku asked her.

Kagome was stunned. How had that much time passed? Was there a connection between the rain and her confrontation with Naraku?

_It's not my fault! I did my best; I'm not to blame!_

The priestess was trying to persuade Miroku to stand, but Kagome could see his despair. She came and stood beside the priestess and looked into Miroku's sunken eyes and knew he was thinking of her.

"Miroku-sama," she whispered.

"I have tried praying, monk," the priestess told him. "No gods or saints have come."

"I guess…" Miroku responded, "let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair?"

Kagome thought this was an odd thing to say, but she was moved to reach out her hand and tug on the robes that draped his shoulders. The cloth at her fingertips felt so real.

Miroku struggled to his feet.

Kagome saw that she had returned to the cave. She looked around, hoping to see Inuyasha again, but it did not take her long to realize that this was a different cave. She saw the crystal tomb of Midoriko looming over her and her mind boiled with rage.

"This is all your doing, isn't it?" she shouted, her shrill voice shaking the crystal.

"If I'm dead," she continued, "isn't that punishment enough? Do you hate me so much?"

There was no answer. Kagome's voice echoed in her chest like a knock inside a tin can.

She listened to the drip of water that seemed to be the rhythm of all caves. She strained her ears to focus on this sound. She heard a heart beating that was not her own, she heard her mother sighing, she heard the land decaying and rusting.

"Why would I hate you?"

Kagome looked up to see the priestess, Midoriko, standing before her. She could not muster surprise, and did not even lose her concentration.

"Because I broke the jewel," she answered without hesitation.

"Such was your destiny," the woman replied.

Kagome stared at her.

"If the jewel had remained with you, whole, you would have been unable to defend it, and Naraku would have obtained it then."

"He almost has the entire thing now!" Kagome protested.

"Yet he does not. And you and your allies are stronger than you were then."

Kagome gaped at the woman. Was she teasing her? Or just plain clueless?

"Hello?! I'm _dead _here!"

"Dead?" Midoriko repeated, turning the word over in her mouth and knitting her brows, as if she'd only just heard of it. "You speak that word, to me?"

Kagome was disconcerted, and somewhat frightened. She backed away.

"That word is not so permanent as you think. Perhaps you should speak with Kikyou-sama on the matter."

"What do you mean?" Kagome whispered, unable to comprehend anything that was being said.

"You will see," the priestess answered. "But of course, breaking the jewel was not the thing you wanted to say, was it? It was not what you thought when you saw me."

Kagome's leaden tongue stayed still in her mouth. Her throat burned with unshed tears.

"That is alright," Midoriko murmured. "You do not have to say it. And I forgive you, and everyone else."

Kagome's head was caught in a febrile haze. The cave filled with a bright expanse of rosy light, but still she sensed a darkness behind her greater than the most dreadful abyss of the sea. She thought she heard someone say behind her, "I'm not blind, I can see it coming", but she could not turn. At last, the situation presented itself in her mind like the missing pieces of a puzzle.

_Only part of me is awake._

"Yes," the priestess answered. "The rest of you would have only gotten in the way. It will be a great deal easier now for you to understand and accept what I must tell you."

"Am I dead, or not?"

"No, Kagome-sama, I can assure you that you are most definitely not dead."

"Then where am I?"

"You will find that out soon enough. For now, I will tell you that you are safe."

Kagome considered that and could find nothing wrong with it. Behind her, she heard someone shout: "It's not my fault! I'm not to blame! It's your fault! Your fault, your fault, all your fault!"

Kagome shivered, and then she heard a dozen indistinguishable voices cry out with cutting spite: "I don't need you!"

"What's behind me?" she gasped.

"Yesterdays," Midoriko shrugged. "You cannot go back there."

Kagome had no desire to turn around.

"How are you doing this?" she asked in a querulous whisper. "Aren't you supposed to be…"

"Dead?" Midoriko supplied with ease. "You are going to have to work on letting that word go, but suffice it to say that I can do many things to accomplish my task."

"Your task?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, that is what I need to talk to you about."

The miko paused. "Something is broken, Kagome-sama, and you are going to help fix it."

"Broken? What's broken?"

Midoriko pursed her lips and was silent for a moment. Kagome watched her, and was surprised at how beautiful she was. Her beauty was not dramatic, but clean and simple, like a single daisy in a field.

"Fate?" the woman suggested. "Destiny? The Universe?"

"I…I don't understand," Kagome admitted.

"You see, Kagome-sama," Midoriko explained, "everything that exists, exists as a piece of the whole, like stones in a wall. Perhaps that is too oversimplified, but it will do for now."

Midoriko went on.

"At some point in the past, a stone was removed at the wrong place and at the wrong time, and then it was replaced by another stone that was, in essence, a mistake."

Kagome saw the sunrise fall on the answer.

"Naraku."

"Exactly. Naraku is at this moment becoming the final expression of that mistake." Midoriko paused again. "You already realize that you and your allies grossly underestimated him."

Kagome remembered the callous inevitability of it all.

"Yes."

"He is actually much older than you know," the other miko told her. "It's just that he has been evolving, and has not always been as he is today, or even as Kikyou knew him."

"But then, it's not really him, is it?" Kagome asked. "I mean, it's not just the demon that was spawned from Onigumo that we're fighting?"

"Right again," Midoriko congratulated her. "There is a greater power behind what you see. The Enemy has many faces, but that which hides behind the faces has no face, and no name. The _essence_ of Naraku has been around much, much longer than the demon you call 'Naraku' or the man that was known as 'Onigumo'".

"How much longer?"

"The numbers would be meaningless to you."

"Then how can we ever win?" Kagome demanded in helpless exasperation.

"Naraku is the expression of the Mistake's potential to overrun things. There is still another potential out there, the one that was originally intended. The two potentials are equal, more or less, and we are fighting for the original one. So you see you are not as out matched as you might think."

"Are you saying that I'm as powerful as Naraku?" Kagome asked dubiously. "Or that you are?"

"Certainly not. Naraku is almost the sole container of the Mistake's potential. You share your responsibility with many others."

"Does potential really have that much power?" Kagome asked.

Midoriko sounded amused. "Possibility has enormous power, Kagome-sama."

Kagome turned over this information in her mind.

"I wonder if Naraku knows he is a mistake," she mused out loud. "This all would have been almost worth it if he knew that."

"I would imagine," Midoriko said, "that he feels the same way about you."

Kagome did not have an answer to that, and she found that she preferred to not consider Naraku's way of thinking anyway. She began to realize what the miko was really getting at.

"You're saying that we have to work together."

"Yes. That is why I am talking to you now, and that is why it has to be you who fixes it. You are not endowed with enormous fighting powers, sacred or otherwise, but your strength lies elsewhere. You are the only one who can do what needs to be done."

"And what is that?"

"You will know details when it is necessary for you to know them. If you know them too soon, it may interfere, and do more harm than good. And we cannot see all ends. On the plateau, for example, there was a possibility that you would die. There was also a possibility that you would succeed."

"But I did neither," Kagome protested.

"No," Midoriko told her. "You succeeded. Because of you, Naraku has lost something he can never replace."

"You mean Kagura."

"Right. Whatever happens now, that fight has already been won, and that single event set off a chain of events that must occur in order for us to succeed. Furthermore, without that event, you would never have broken the cycle in which you were trapped."

"What would have happened if I had died?"

"Then Naraku, and the power behind him, would have succeeded. Naraku would have gone on to glut himself on the misery and death of the inhabitants of this world."

"And the power behind him?" Kagome asked.

"The potential would have become reality. It is a reality that ultimately leads to chaos and destruction." Midoriko paused. "Let me put it this way, you are the chisel I will use to knock out the incorrect stone so it can be replaced with the right one. If we are successful, all will be restored to the original design."

"And if we fail?"

"The wall falls down."

Kagome felt her mind cringing, and a sliver of ice ran through her heart.

"Do not cower, Kagome-sama, do not flinch. You cannot afford it. There is no possible way to convey to you the time and distances involved, the races and species whose existence hangs now on your weakest breath but who will never be able to see the light of your sun."

Kagome swallowed. She recognized the terror and horror that was knocking at the door of her mind, though it was remote, like a tiny tower on a far away mountain. She saw in her mind's eye a swirl of infinite stars and she swallowed hard.

"You're not really Midoriko, are you?" she asked at last.

"I am, and I am not. But that is not for you to know."

"I can see why you chose to tell me all this when I was half dead," she said at last, with some bitterness that she failed to hide.

She drew in a deep breath and raised her chin.

"So, what is it that you want me to do?"

"You have a highly developed sense of duty. I am glad of that," the miko sounded genuinely happy. "The first thing you have to do is to recover. You are actually in terrible condition."

"Really?" Kagome was a little surprised. "I mean, I remember some of what happened. I know it was bad. But I don't seem to be feeling much pain."

"That is because you have been medicated," Midoriko told her.

Kagome assumed that meant that Inuyasha had taken her back to the modern era. For the first time since the Plateau, she experienced relief.

"Do not get excited," Midoriko warned her. "You have a long and difficult road ahead of you. The main purpose of this visit was to explain these things to you so that you know the 'whys' when the time comes to take orders."

"Okay, I think I can I understand that. But what about my friends and my mother, was all that a dream?"

"A favor," Midoriko answered. "After all you had suffered, and will suffer, I wanted you to know that they were still alive, which is a greater luxury than they themselves are afforded at the moment."

"And one more thing," the miko's tone was ominous. "You must never, _EVER_ stand alone. If you, or any of your allies, meet Naraku like that again, you will not survive, and everything that has ever happened will be meaningless. I have not moved all these pieces through a universe of death to have it all end like that."

Before Kagome could answer, or question her further, the miko's presence was gone. The light in the cave, however, did not dim but grew brighter and brighter. She stood for a moment in a blinding white plain, until she saw an azure sky above bearing the brilliant, white disc of the sun. She was surrounded by fields of blue bellflowers that reached to all horizons.

She looked down and brushed a few blooms with her foot. What was the _deal_ with these flowers, anyway?

Kagome could not reckon clearly how much time she spent wandering the fields of bellflowers. During this time she thought back on her conversation with Midoriko, and the "visits" she had paid to her friends. Why couldn't they know she was still alive? Why weren't they together? How was she supposed to find them?

Lost in thought, she stumbled upon something solid and rectangular, set amongst the blue fields.

"Okay," she mumbled, staring at it. "That's…random."

Feeling her logic growing fuzzy like in dreams, Kagome lifted herself to sit on the stone table.

A man was sitting beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw long white hair and armor and concluded straight away that it was Sesshoumaru. She flinched and tensed her muscles to make a run for it.

"Sorry," he waved a nonchalant hand. "Wrong dog demon."

Kagome gaped at him stupidly. It was Inuyasha's father! She had seen him only once before, in a brief apparition at the gates of the underworld, but even if she had not there could be no mistake. His golden eyes and his sharp features cut holes in her soul. The minute she looked at his face, she wondered what Sesshoumaru's mother looked like.

_Because he must favor her very much._

"I'm s-sorry," she stammered, feeling ignorant and gauche. "I…I don't know your name."

"Ichiro."

"Ichiro?" somehow she was not surprised. "Ichiro. It's a powerful name. Why are you here, Ichiro-sama?"

"Midoriko has had her turn, now we need to have a little chat."

His easy, unpolished manner made her want to cry. They were just _so_ much alike.

"I hope," he said, "that you've learned your lesson well."

Kagome swallowed tears.

"Yes," was all she could say.

"You won't make the same mistakes again?"

"No."

"Good. Maybe you can keep my sons from making them too."

"Sons?" Kagome was numb and dazed, and thought she had misunderstood and was in serious danger of coming off as an idiot.

"Yes, your allies."

"Ah, wait a minute, wait a minute," Kagome jumped. "Sorry to interrupt you, but your eldest son is not my ally at all, _at all_.

He was still sitting on the other end of the stone, leaning back on his arms. He peered at her out of the corner of his eye.

"He is if I say he is."

Kagome smiled and quickly waved her hands.

"Yes, okay, so sorry!"

She sighed and lowered her head.

_He must think I'm so useless._

"Why do you keep saying that?" he asked her.

"Saying what, my lord?"

"Useless."

"How…" she began asking.

"There are no secrets in the dreaming world," he said.

"Then, why can't I know what you're thinking?"

He looked at her as though she had asked him why he thought it necessary to breathe that way.

"I'm not in the dreaming world," he said. "You are."

"Then," she folded her hands on her lap to hide her timidity. "Then can you tell me where you are?"

He answered only with a long gaze.

"That's not for me to know?" she supplied.

"You're getting better at this."

"So…then," Kagome bit her lip, trying to come up with her perfect question.

"May I ask what can I know?"

He grinned. "Good question."

"I'm here," he continued, "to give you very specific information: a list of allies, though it won't be complete, and you won't understand all of it."

Kagome had nothing to say to that.

"My sons, like I've said. You will also receive aid from my wife, if you need it."

"Do you mean Izayoi?" Kagome asked before she could tell her mouth to shut up.

"Alas, no," he answered. He was quiet for a moment, and his eyes withdrew to some far off place. Kagome winced and cursed her thoughtlessness.

"Izayoi's part in this tale was finished when she bore Inuyasha. She rests now in peaceful lands where there are no burdens or sorrows."

He was quiet again. Then he looked up and smiled.

"No, I mean Chiyoko."

"Ah, yes, my lord," Kagome said quickly, not daring to question to him.

Kagome wondered if dead people went insane.

"There's Midoriko, of course. The others I will not name specifically, but you already know them, though you won't expect many of them. One of them is on her way now."

"Here?" Kagome looked around.

"Any minute now," he answered.

Kagome grew nervous.

_He'll leave then, _she thought.

"My lord," she lowered her head. "Can't you tell me anything else? What is happening? Why is it happening? What am I supposed to do?"

"You know," Ichiro mused, as if he had not heard her. "Sometime when you make a mistake, you have to go around and around and around, trying to fix it. Sometimes, you repeat it before you recognize it."

"Are you talking about my mistakes?"

"No."

"So…someone made a mistake," Kagome strained to understand. "And, until it is addressed…we just keep repeating…"

The answer stabbed her in the heart.

"The same thing over and over!" she exclaimed. "Of course! I understand. That's why I felt so trapped. That's why I felt like nothing ever changed—because it really didn't! It couldn't!"

The revelation was like understanding how to speak and listen, after a lifetime of dark dumbness. She relished the feeling of clarity, while Ichiro looked on and smiled a small smile.

"Very good," he said. "But you should know that the tendency to repeat is a symptom of the Mistake, and will continue to be an issue until it's corrected. You can resist, however."

Kagome pictured the library in her mind, where she stored that information away with great care.

"She's nearly here," Ichiro stood up. "I may see you again."

Then he was gone.

Kagome realized that she was lying on the stone table now, covered in those stupid flowers. She could not recall how this had happened, but it was hardly the oddest thing she had lately experienced. She felt like an actress in a play and was afraid to move, fearing she would do or say the wrong thing, fail to follow the cues, and end up setting everything off in the wrong direction.

She looked up and saw Kikyou looking down at her. Kagome's blood ran cold.

"All night," the _other_ miko said, "all I hear, all I hear is your heart."

She looked hypnotized.

"How come?" Kagome responded without hesitation, listening to herself with a detached wonder.

Kikyou's cheeks and chin were wet with tears. Kagome sat up, shoving the flowers aside and shaking them from her hair.

_I'm not ready to just lie here, _she thought. _I'm not dead!_

"Kikyou, what is it? Are you hurt?"

Kikyou did not answer, but she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Kagome looked around, dazed. "How did you get here?"

Kikyou stared at her. "Kagome? Is that really you?"

"Of course it is! What's with you?"

Kikyou took hold of the Kagome's arms and shook her.

"Where are you Kagome?" she demanded. "Are you sleeping somewhere? Safe? Hurry and tell me before this ends."

"What?" Kagome looked around and tried to pull away.

"Kagome, this isn't real." Kikyou's voice was as hard as ever. "You're asleep somewhere. You must tell me where that is!"

"I don't know!" Kagome shouted, finally. "The last thing I remember is…"

She trailed off as she realized that Kikyou's hands were warm and calloused, soft and hard at the same time. Kagome's heart pounded painfully in her chest.

"Why did you do that? Foolish girl!" Kikyou demanded.

Kagome did not even hear her. She was sifting through memories not her own, casting her thought back three months to a remote riverside. She saw eyes as black as the blackest ocean, and she began weeping.

"Death came for me?" she asked in a quivering voice.

"Yes," Kikyou answered. "But you were lucky; she came to me by mistake."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Kagome continued to weep.

"Stop that!" Kikyou snapped.

"Kagome, wake up. I'm ordering you to wake up."

Kagome raised her head to the ceiling of white light. A glacial voice resounded above their heads, like the toll of heavy bells.

"No more delay. You must wake up and you must do it now."

"Who is that?" Kikyou asked her, looking around.

"I don't know…" Kagome mumbled.

Her head was too heavy to lift and she felt herself sinking and lifting at the same time.

Though she was still questioning her, Kikyou seemed to move away. She became veiled in a hazy mesh.

"Wait…Kikyou…" Kagome whispered and, with enormous effort, reached out her hand. "Kikyou…all you need…"

Kagome's throat stopped working. She stared mutely at her outstretched hand. A hideous, angry red line ran from the wrist and up the entire length of her arm.

Kagome tried to call out, but found herself suddenly gagged. She choked on a hard, metallic taste on her tongue. Reaching to her mouth she pulled out something round and unrelenting. It was a silver bracelet, with a scarlet star-stone in its center.

"Kagome, I will not tell you again."

Kagome tried to turn around, but was pulled back and up. She had the impression that she was emerging from water.

She sat up gasping for air. She was on an unfamiliar bed, in a strange room. Her eyes were bleary, a general ache covered her, and Kagome felt an incredible weight of weariness in every region of her body. A gray veil was swept from her vision and the first thing she saw was the face of Sesshoumaru.

Kagome screamed in terror and immediately threw up her arms.

"What's happening? Where's Inuyasha?"

There were others in the room, but they did not answer her. Kagome told herself that she was probably still dreaming, but then Jaken opened the window and declared, with quaking joy, that the rain was finally ending. Kagome's stomach recoiled and her mind tried to slink away in denial. But the sentinels of the past bared her way with inflexible and unmistakable determination. She had crossed over the precipice of uncertainty, the penumbra of dreams, and into the world of the things that have not happened yet.

[End of chapter 14, ending "the rains" period]

[End of Book One]

[Continue the story in "The Dissidents"_, _book two of_ The Edge of Resistance. _Kagome recuperates in the Hyouden, while the countryside recovers from the cataclysmic rains. A new power is rising, one that turns allies against allies. Many strings of fate become reunited once again. The inhabitants of the Higurashi shrine do not remain untouched, and somewhere a forgotten ally struggles on alone.]


	15. Prologue to Book Two

**Author Notes:**

So I've decided to keep all the books of Edge of Resistance under the same title in mediaminer. I think it'll be better, but I don't know, maybe it will just be confusing. We'll see…I can always change it later.

Oh, and also…canon? What's canon? :P

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**PROLOGUE**

"_I can feel it, _

_coming back again_

_Like a roll of thunder, _

_chasing the wind_

_Forces pulling from the center of the earth again_

_I can feel it…"_

_-Live_

The world was so much younger then. In those days the realms of magic and of the mundane were inexorably mixed together, like a soup of rice and cayenne pepper.

Her sonorous heart never faltered, her laughter sprayed on the fresh, green world like broken glass, and the greatest gift of all was that her freedom was so absolute and so indifferent. Even in tender childhood, when the world was so new that the stars lack names and to indicate them it was necessary to point, she knew great power and strength, but it could not corrupt her. Only freedom mattered. Chiyoko sprinted across streams of clear water that ran over polished stones, round and enormous like dragon eggs. She would laugh and run like a deer, wild and snowy hair streaming behind her.

The people of that land, human and demon, existed in a peace that could only predate want. They could not help but admire her and they congratulated her parents, saying how wonderful it must be to have such a beautiful and joyous child.

Her parents did not answer them that the girl was worse than a mule. When they draped her in luxurious fabrics, she laughed and tossed them from a window, and ran about all day clad only in a smock she made from sailing cloth. When they braided her hair into intricate patterns, she cut it off (luckily, it grew back over night). When they presented her with the applications of princes, she heartlessly laughed and declared that she would never tie herself to a man stupid enough to get saddled with a kingdom. When suitors sang of their suffering outside her window, she sent servants to fetch physicians, and wondered aloud in earnest what sort of disease she could be. They presented her with lavish and magical gifts from faraway lands, including a flying carpet from India, a pair of mechanized dancing cats from China, and a tiny porcelain pistol from Portugal that would expel a nepenthe of orchids when you pulled the trigger. Chiyoko accepted them with genuine joy, and then proceeded to give them out to her friends, for such things had no hold on her mind.

Her parents kept these complaints to themselves, but in their hearts they suspected the girl was not right in the head.

Chiyoko was apart, but for uncounted centuries she was content to run wild in the free lands and to give no thought to her otherness. She grew slowly, if at all, and did not notice that her life was static while the world around began to show its age.

One day, she was dashing in and out of the lush, green shades of a summer forest, when she came face to face with an ogre. Ogres have notorious appetites, but it is just as well known that they have small brains and kill and eat without discrimination.

So it was that Chiyoko was obliged to decapitate him, which she always preferred as a method of quick and easy disposal. What she did not realize was that, before her arrival, the ogre had been in the midst of stuffing himself with a village worth of humans.

"Midoriko-sama!" she heard a villager say. "It's another demon. Destroy it before she starts to eat us too!"

Chiyoko wrinkled her dainty nose.

"Eat a human?" she asked. "Why would I do such a disgusting thing?"

The villagers paid no attention to her, but continued to encourage and entreat the priestess, who had arrived at the scene only in time to see the ogre's death.

When Chiyoko turned to look at the priestess, she saw a pretty but rather ordinary looking woman, petite with long black hair pulled away from a heart-shaped face and let loose down her back. She was ordinary, but when Chiyoko looked into those almond eyes, her slumber in the warm, green lizard silence of her lengthened adolescence came to an abrupt end. Thus an age of the world, when life was a fusion of fantastic and common and when time moved slowly but clearly forward, was ended, and there was no returning.

Midoriko stared back at Chiyoko for a moment, then turned to the villagers.

"It is alright," she said. "Go back to the village. I will be there shortly to help you enshrine the dead."

The villagers hesitated, but could not argue, and they filed out of the clearing, making their way to their huts in the forest.

Midoriko turned to the dog demon.

"I never dreamed I'd see you so soon," she said, smiling.

"Who are you?" Chiyoko asked her breathlessly. "Do I know you?"

"Yes," the miko answered. "And no."

The priestess returned to the village, but Chiyoko, trapped by her undeniable fate, would not leave her side. The villagers stared in fright and amazement at the bare-foot, wild-looking girl with white hair and decided to believe that Midoriko had tamed the demon child as a pet.

That night, after the dirges had all been sung, and the people had returned to their hearths, Midoriko and Chiyoko talked together until morning. The families of the ogre's victims filled the wind with their lamentations.

"I do not want this," Chiyoko said at dawn.

"No, none of us do."

"It doesn't seem fair."

"That is because it is not," the miko answered.

"Do I have to leave now?"

"There is no reason to wait. It will only make it more difficult."

But Chiyoko did say goodbye to her family. In spite of the difficulties they had had with their daughter, her father hung his head and her mother wept openly. They did not understand, but Chiyoko assured them that it was her destiny, and that they were not required to understand. She left and never saw them again.

Her first task, the first of many, was so absurd to her that she released her broken glass laugh the minute she heard it.

"You must be joking, Midoriko-sama," she exclaimed. "One pup is as good as another."

Midoriko gave her a look that said _one day, you'll understand._

So Chiyoko spent the next few centuries arranging marriages, alliances, and even the occasional assassination. Midoriko passed on instructions to her, though after a short time Chiyoko came to be familiar with that shock of recognition she felt when she would come face to face with someone whose fate was not their own. Soon she was able to feel the presence of these souls, and the strings that secured them, pulling with forcefulness on the atmosphere.

The guidance came, however, even after the body of Midoriko was encased in a crystal tomb. They had always understood that the body meant nothing, so the only reason this event had any effect on them was that Midoriko's soul was preoccupied with the endless battle that continued to rage in the Shikon no Tama, and therefore Chiyoko "saw" her less often.

One day, when Chiyoko reached to the priestess across the quiet dark of the weird unlife in which they dwelt, Midoriko said to her:

"It is time for you to go back."

"I guess there's no point in complaining about it."

"You may find some joy, Chiyoko-kun," Midoriko said to her. "But remember, you cannot stay forever."

Chiyoko went to the western lands and searched until she found the right spot. It was a small river that cradled a plateau, set high and flat amongst a jagged mountain rage. Chiyoko placed herself primly on a smooth rock near the river bank, pinched her cheeks and fluffed her hair, and waited.

While she waited, she looked around and thought how the world looked much less young. For no reason, she thought of her parents, and realized she could no longer remember what they looked like.

Then _he _came. The one she awaited came around a bend in the river, and she noted with satisfaction that he was handsome. He had white hair of course, as all dog demons she had ever known did, and it was long and tied at the crown of his head. His features were sharp and distinct, with golden eyes. _That will make this easier, _she thought. He did not look surprised to find her there.

"Am I late?" he asked her, and she thought his voice sounded nice too.

"So I see I am not the only one who knows a thing or two," she said to him.

"There are a lot of prophets out there," he answered.

His easy manner was comforting.

"So then I suppose you figure you don't have to court me." Chiyoko smiled ruefully. "That's rather disappointing. I've waited a long time for this, you know."

He laughed, and then reached out a hand to her. When she took it, she could not help but notice that it trembled a little. A thrill of fear and anxiety tickled her lower stomach.

"Come," he said. "Let's go home."

Chiyoko was the mistress of the Hyouden for many years. The lord of the Hyouden had, until then, lived a life of seclusion, taciturn and severe, but her natural joyousness spread over those lands in a bright expanse of spring. It was during their reign that the power of the Hyouden grew, not out of conquest, as everyone of later generations would believe, but out of love. Demon tribes in the surrounding areas swore fealty to the couple, and humans paid tribute, all out of an adoration of Chiyoko's effortless exuberance. She hosted gatherings of lavish gaiety at the Hyouden, and it became known as the finest place to eat and drink, laugh and sing, for a hundred leagues in any direction.

The lord failed to convince his mistress why it was inappropriate to invite humans. It was then that he learned just how long she had been waiting for him, for she said that in her childhood humans and demons lived together in perfect peace, and that had not happened in all the long years of his own life. She could not understand why discord would have arisen between the two kindred. He tried to explain to her how they now suspected and envied each other, sometimes digressing into outright hatred, but she would not hear of it.

"A time will come when you'll have to tolerate them more than you could imagine," she warned him.

"So you are privy to information I do not have." It was not a question.

Chiyoko only shrugged. "So it goes."

The humans were too polite to refuse the invitation, despite their fear, and the demons were too afraid of offending her to offer any impertinence over the issue. In Chiyoko's unbending shadow, it was easy to forget any grievance anyway. The music thundered in the halls and the storerooms overflowed with food and they laughed: "Cease! Clear the tables! Life is brief!" The greatest gift of all was that no one knew how short the time would be.

Those days were so simple and joyous, so real and prodigious, that Chiyoko lost count of the years, and sometimes forgot why she was there. Then the day came which she and her husband had anticipated with both dread and desire. Chiyoko announced that she was pregnant.

That night, Chiyoko and Ichiro lay in the quiet dark, their foreheads touching.

"So it's almost over then," Ichiro gave voice to the sentence that had hung in the air all day.

"Yes," she answered. "And let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair."

"You've learned your lessons well."

He ran his fingers through her hair, white and electric like his own.

"I'll take good care of him," he whispered.

Chiyoko swallowed her resentment, and her heart came up instead.

"There are times," she whispered, "when I think I'd make a deal with the gods, or whoever is behind all this, to get them to swap our places."

"Yeah. Yeah, me too."

"I will leave some of me with you, for his sake," she said. "Wield it wisely."

Ichiro of the West announced the birth of his son and the death of his beloved wife in one breath. Those who loved and served him did not know how to react. Chiyoko had come into their lives like a tornado of laughter, a storm of spring, and it seemed to them that she had evaporated just as quickly.

_How unexpected, _they shook their heads, _she was so young and strong!_

Over time, the Hyouden slipped back into the old ways, though those who lived in that land still paid tribute to Ichiro, and later to his heir, out of respect for the beloved they had lost.

Chiyoko herself did not have much time to spend on her grief, for straight away she was to begin her next task: guarding the gates of the dead. She waited by the gate day after day, year after year—never amongst the living, yet never leaving them. Long and empty years flowed away. She counted down the days until Ichiro would come to her. When that day came, he was not surprised to see her, but his eyes were curious.

"Is this your task?" he asked her, looking around with mild interest.

"One of many," she said.

Chiyoko had forgotten how his voice vibrated in her chest. Her mind wandered into the solar fields of the past, when his body rocked with hers, but she waved those thoughts away and they skittered into the quiet dark again. She took his hand and led him forth.

"Your gate is different," she said to him, "because you can't leave yet, not entirely. But of course, you probably already know that."

"We will pass the final gate together, someday," he said to her.

"We will see," was all she said.

It was not long after when Chiyoko went, in spirit unseen, to attend the birth of the Guardian.

"Soon, as it will seem to us, many more will come," Midoriko said to her. "Finally, all your labors will see their fruit.

"That last one was rather unfair," Chiyoko said, not bothering to hide her bitterness.

"Chiyoko-kun, you know these orders do not come from me."

"Yes, so you say, but can't I just be angry sometimes?"

"If you wish," Midoriko shrugged. "But do not let it consume you. You still have work to do."

Midoriko had been correct. Chiyoko did not have time to turn around twice before she had to rush to the birth of the Cyclone, followed by the Queen With No Country. The Wanderer and the Jewel were born within a week of each other and many leagues apart. Then there was a quiet period where time dragged on again and nothing happened.

In spirit, she stood next to the Wanderer the day the Guardian was imprisoned on a tree. That day, the Wanderer came to her gates, and Chiyoko let her pass without a word.

About ten years later, give or take, the Holy Man and the Solitary were born, two years apart. Another ten years passed and an arrival was expected that Chiyoko anticipated more than any other. She had established this line centuries ago, but the family had become nomadic merchants and she had lost track of them over the years. As the foretold hour approached she took great pains to find them and to attend the birth in person, rather than merely in spirit, disguised as a servant.

When the new mother held the infant in her arms, it looked like any other: wet, red, and altogether traumatized. This child did not sound like any other, however. This child did not cry, but instead she looked at the world with wide, luminous eyes that seemed to take in everything. Chiyoko took the infant and cleansed it in a gentle rapture, watching the signs in the air that only she could see, signs that announced the arrival of the Bearer.

"What will you call her, my lady?" Chiyoko asked the mother, giving the babe back to her, with some regret.

The woman held the child close again, her face shining and absorbed.

"Rin," she answered.

This was the last birth she would witness in person, so Chiyoko returned to her gates, and waited. She felt Midoriko and Ichiro moving through time and space, working on their own tasks, and she wondered what they were and if she would ever know. She watched in silence as the Bearer came to her gate and then vanished again. She listened everyday to the beating of her son's titan heart. She shuddered when she felt the fabric of time wrinkle together—the first occurrence but not the last.

Chiyoko exhaled a long breath, as if she had been holding it for centuries.

"_She_ is here," she uttered into the quiet dark.


	16. Wish You Were Here

**Author's Notes:**

I'm sorry this chapter took so long. You can expect Book Two chapters to take two weeks instead of one, because they will need to be heavily proofed, which takes me about a week. This one took a little longer because of a family event. Anyway, hope you like it.

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter 16: Wish You Were Here**

"_Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?" – Pink Floyd_

Two of the individuals affected by the catastrophe on the Plateau were, for better or for worse, quite capable of returning to their former state of mind almost as if nothing had happened at all. These were Sesshoumaru and Rin.

For Sesshoumaru, the occasion had meant little beyond the probable demise of his half-brother. It was just another event, a light on a string of events, much the same as many others in his life. The presence of Kagome in his house was, to be sure, unusual and even irksome, but he shrugged it off as a matter of small consequence and convenience. That he had always treated the revival of Rin, the service of Jaken, and the rivalries with both his brother and Naraku, in exactly the same manner did not impress him in the least, if indeed he even noticed it. The rains had been the most bothersome part of the affair, but they were past, and the trouble they had caused would soon be gone also, after effecting him for a negligible time. After all, what was a few months to him?

Despite his cousin's effort to point it out to him, Sesshoumaru remained ignorant of the repetitious nature of his character—or perhaps he was tenaciously committed to maintaining it. Whatever the case, there was only one person whom he would have ever allowed the freedom of advising him (though he would never admit it). Unfortunately, she was the last person on earth to improve him, because in truth she was too much like him.

Rin had always been a child removed, and she was growing into a woman apart. The destruction of that terrible day, the wake of ruin left by the rains, and, most of all, the terrible state of Kagome when brought to the Hyouden, all had a deep impact on Rin. For a time every bit as brief as Sesshoumaru's concern, she lost her immunity to anxiety and she was a victim of conscience. For the first time in her life she was burdened by grief, fear, and dread.

All the same, upon Kagome's showing unmistakable signs of recovery, these afflictions passed, and Rin lost no time in returning to her previous state. She was dutiful in her care of the miko, but she laughed at every worry and waved aside every concern, as though no one in the world suffered from want and need. She could not nor should not be blamed; it was simply her nature reasserting itself.

Jaken appeared unchanged, but that was far from the truth. He worried for Rin more than ever, after seeing her possession, her enigmatic dread, and her astounding grief, only to witness her transform back into her former self as if nothing had happened. He was intelligent enough to realize that he should have been pleased, but instead he felt sick and nervous. When he saw that his lord was likewise unchanged, and that the great dog demon was not in the least at a loss to explain his actions, as though nothing in the world were unusual in keeping a human priestess at his house, Jaken swallowed his dread and said nothing. He could not shake free from the notion that he was stuck in a dream. He walked about the house with a sense of wariness, as if he expected reality to sneak up behind him and clobber him on the head.

"Am I wrong?" he would mutter to himself. "Is it right that they are so static? Isn't that what I would wish for?"

"No," he answered himself. "No, it just isn't natural. It will have to paid for."

He was convinced that the house itself agreed with him. It was a very old house, as was almost everything in it, and such things have a way of catching the electricity of life and putting it to their own purposes. Only a day or two after Kagome had been brought to the Hyouden, he was heating water for tea and, dismayed that it was taking so long to boil, went to the pot to investigate. Instead of water, he found inside a mass of writhing, white worms. With a startled epithet, he flung the pot away. A splash of hot water, and nothing else, landed on the planks of the kitchen floor and disappeared into the wood and seams.

Only a few days after that, he was in the sick room. Kagome was now able to stay awake for about half of the daylight hours but at this time she was asleep, and Rin was taking the opportunity to change the dressing on her wounds. Jaken had come in to say something to her, but then he forgot what it was. Feeling rather foolish, he turned to leave and caught a glimpse of himself in the old mirror that someone had long ago left leaning against the far wall.

He saw the room exactly as it should be, except for himself. He found that he was staring at the back of his own head. Jaken cringed.

"Stop it," he growled. "Stop it."

"Jaken-sama?" Rin looked up. "Did you say something?"

Jaken did not answer and he left the room muttering to himself. This was only the beginning of his disquiet. He could not leave the window open in the kitchen anymore because it often would close with a smart snap and blow out the cooking fire. Mats turned up their corners to trip him and ancient paintings shifted their ink so they could laugh and wink at him from their stately repose. The pots, plates, ladles, cups, and chopsticks that had been in the house for generations could no longer be trusted. They burned food before it was hot, froze food directly before it reached the lips, changed tea to egg soup, curdled milk, and blackened fruit.

Jaken was a mute witness to all of this, but Sesshoumaru and Rin noticed nothing. Even when Kagome was awake, she spent the chief of her time in a feverish state. Jaken and Yuka, miles and centuries apart, had something in common: they both believed they had become wardens of a mad house.

Three days after the rains had ceased, Jaken sat in the open window of the kitchen, one foot dangling out over the north wall. The salty air from the sea was scrubbing the land, but it had not yet been enough to cleanse it of the stench of death. Jaken endured it for the privilege of seeing the sun shine on the distant sea. It was for this reason that he was first aware of the return of Sesshoumaru's cousin, Tamotsu. Jaken looked out and saw the dog demon approaching, accompanied by two extraordinary persons. He gaped for a moment, then said to himself.

"Oh, shit."

Souta's shoes squeaked against the smoothed sidewalk. It was the only sound on the empty street that spread before him, bathed in the rosy light of the sunrise. It was warm for October, and the sky had cleared overnight. The sunlight washed over the city for the first time in months.

But Souta did not notice it. He was sunk in reliving his nightmares and he trudged along on autopilot, until a low, crying sound tugged at his attention. It came from above him.

He looked up and saw a small, scraggly looking owl sitting on the lowest limb of one of the trees that lined the street. Its wide eyes regarded him as it turned its head almost parallel to the tree trunk. Again, it cried.

_What? Whaaat?_

The large and liquid eyes stared at him without blinking. Souta shivered.

_Whaaat?_

It was a bad omen. He picked up his pace.

At the steps of the Higurashi shrine he found an old woman, as small as a doll, wandering back and forth on the sidewalk, shuffling her feet and smoking a tobacco pipe.

"Obaa-san?" he said. "Do you need something?"

The old woman turned on him in surprise, and Souta thought for a minute he saw her hair slip out from under her knitted cap and thought that it was a bright red. When he looked closer he saw that her hair was white, and he leapt to the conclusion that her forehead was bleeding.

"Are you hurt?" he cried in alarm, coming to her.

"No, no, no," the woman waved him off with impatience. She brushed a scrawny, sparrow hand across her forehead and then nothing was there.

"Don't you worry about me, son, you'll have plenty to worry about as it is."

"Huh?" Souta could not think of anything else to say.

"Hurry home, boy," she crackled. "You're needed."

Souta backed away from her, feeling numb and somehow useless. He turned and ran up the long stairs.

As he ran he thought of his sister. He was always thinking of her. She had become the monarch enthroned in his head. Everything boiled down to "what will Kagome say?", "how will this effect Kagome?", or "what will we do if Kagome…?".

If Kagome doesn't come back.

Yuka had thought him detached from the doings of the shrine, but Souta was just biding his time. Ever since the rains began and he had gone into his sister's room and found the white snowdrops on the windowsill dying, Souta waited. Even if his sister were gone forever, unreachable across the void he could not yet understand, Inuyasha would return. Inuyasha would find a way to return to tell them something.

So while the rain continued to fall, his mother teetered on the precipice of reality, his grandfather broke his ties with it altogether, and Yuka immersed herself in the useless business of the shrine, Souta waited.

That morning it was no longer raining. Souta entered his family's shrine and looked around for a sign. Before he even went into the house to drop off his bag, he searched the courtyard aimlessly, and wandered to the wellhouse. There he found a heavy padlock on the door.

_How did this escape my notice?_ he thought in alarm.

Unwilling to drop his pack in the mud, he pulled the straps tighter and went to a nearby shed to fetch a mallet.

It took many swings, perhaps more than a dozen, to break the lock. It finally surrendered with a loud crack and fell to the ground. Souta picked it up and put it in the shed next to the mallet.

He came into the house through the courtyard door that led to the kitchen and found his mother sitting at the table, head hung in misery. Yuka was standing with her still-damp hair tied in a knot, dressed in jeans and a light sweater, and holding a cup of coffee. She was leaning against the counter, studying him.

"Why did you do that?" she asked him, sipping from her cup.

"Do what?" he returned, though he knew full well what she meant.

Her eyes narrowed a fraction, for a second, then she sipped again.

"The door, the lock," she said. "Why did you break it?"

"Why did you put it there?"

"How do you know I did?"

Souta did not say anything, but waited.

"I put it there," she said finally, "so people wouldn't wander in and get hurt. The building is in disrepair and that old well is uncovered. Someone could fall in. We'd get sued."

_Someone could fall in._ Souta did not know whether to laugh or cry, so he did neither.

"The shrine would get sued, you mean," he answered, putting his bag in a chair and a hand on his mother's shoulder. "Not you."

Yuka said nothing.

"That door cannot be locked," Souta declared in the hollow air of the kitchen.

"Why?"

Yuka put her coffee on the table, and Souta noticed the sun that fell on the caramel color, and the steam that cast a ghostly shadow on the wood.

Yuka was staring at him. His mother looked down at her hands and said nothing.

"Just because, it can't."

"Why?"

"Because!" Souta shouted with some heat. "It's not your business anyway!"

He turned and left, fearing she would question him further. He stomped upstairs, dragging his feet, too old for his legs, and went down the hall to Kagome's room. He hesitated, and listened to the house. He heard someone go out the back door, the screen slapping back against the wooden frame with a squeal, and thought it was probably Yuka going out into the courtyard.

He entered the room. Sunlight was coming in through the window, which Yuka had left open.

_I wonder if she would_, he thought, _if she knew what could come in it._

Souta gasped when he saw the flowers. They were upright, reaching their bright white blooms to the light on strong stems. He went to the window and waved his hand over them, their soft and silky tips grazing his palm.

_Well at least Kagome will be happy that they didn't die._

That they didn't die. The thought wrung his stomach for a moment, until he pushed it away.

A sudden sound made him jump clear out of his skin, and only a terrific effort kept him from screaming like a little girl and running out of the room. Yuka's bedside alarm radio—_damnit, that's Kagome's alarm, Kagome's!_—had gone off.

"With every mistake…we must surely be learning…"

"God I hope so," he whispered under his breath, before turning it off.

Inuyasha stood balancing on one foot. Then the other. Now back again.

Now…stretch!

He had been traveling for two weeks. The sun was making short work of all the moisture in the earth, but it was too little too late for most people, and Inuyasha could not go more than half a day, it seemed, without being solicited for some kind of assistance. What was worse, was that the aid often moved him away from his goal. Someone needed to get to long lost relatives that had fled from the floods and were now across an impassable swamp. Someone else needed a special medicine, which could only be found in such-and-such far away forest. Of course, while in route on one rescue mission he would run into others who were just as desperate, and he would have to go back to them.

Thus he was circling ever south and westward, instead of the north and eastward that would take him to Edo.

Now he was perched on the roof ridge of a hut he had just finished building.

Well okay, the villagers helped a little.

Inuyasha paced up and down, tapping his foot in various places to verify that the thatch, joists, and sheathing were all sound. The villagers looked up with weary faces that belied their hopeful anticipation, amazement, and gratitude. For the one hundred and eighty-sixth time that day, Inuyasha wondered why they were so eager to accept the aid of a demon. It never occurred to him to ask.

It had occurred to him to refuse their requests, of course. It always did. After all, he should have been looking for his friends.

At the same time, however, if they had survived, then, well, they had survived. Rushing to them now would probably not make a difference either way. And wouldn't it be nice to bore them all to tears with an endless and detailed account of all his good deeds, and how they had been such a burden, such a pain in his neck, but he had done it anyway because, after all, he was the poor, put upon hero?

There were a few places on the sharply steeped roof that needed attention, and Inuyasha pointed these out, calling for more slats, thatch, and wrapping. After some time, wooden slats and wrapping were carried up one of the ladders. The man who presented them bowed and then looked at him for a moment. With a start, Inuyasha recognized him.

"Nobunaga?"

"Hello, Inuyasha-sama!"

The young man walked carefully to where Inuyasha was sitting and laid down his burden. Inuyasha, somewhat dazed, watched him start to work on the places in the roof that still needed work. He was not sure if the young man before him was working on the roof in reality and was not a dream or hallucination. Considering the state of his mind during the rains period, his doubt of his own senses was not to be wondered at.

"Hey," he said at last, "I thought you were with lord so-and-so.""

"Lord so-and-so is gone, along with most of his kin," the young man answered.

"Oh."

Inuyasha started to help him and, while he did so, he stole the occasional glance at him, noting that he had aged, at least a little, and that his eyes were distant.

"War?" Inuyasha supplied.

Nobunaga shook his head. "The rains."

"Oh."

Inuyasha unrolled a bundle of straw and wondered if Kagome would know what to say.

As if Inuyasha's thoughts had put her there in the air between them, Nobunaga, without looking up, inquired as to her well-being.

Inuyasha at first thought to lie, which would have been easier, but he was astonished to hear himself saying aloud:

"I really don't know, Nobunaga, I'm afraid I lost her."

Nobunaga looked up sharply, his face expressive for once.

"What? Is she dead?"

Inuyasha's insides grimaced, but he only shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't know."

"Why aren't you with her?"

Inuyasha interpreted this as an accusation.

"Don't talk to me! I'm trying to find her!"

"You are?"

"Oh, well," Inuyasha said in a huff. "Maybe when I do find her, you can explain to her why I should have left helpless people to sleep in the mud."

Nobunaga lowered his eyes and did not answer. He bent over his work again. After several minutes of silence, he spoke.

"This is the last of the dry thatch anyway. You've done all you can for these people."

"Huh?" Inuyasha looked around in alarm. "But this is only one house!"

"But a large one," Nobunaga returned. "It's better than nothing."

Inuyasha stared away for some time.

"Are you staying here then?" he asked finally.

Nobunaga shrugged. "I don't know, but I doubt it. I've been moving around, trying to help people recover."

This surprised Inuyasha, but he didn't know why. Did he think he was the only one?

Nobunaga did not look up from his work, but he said in a low voice that was almost lost on the wind and only perceptible to Inuyasha's ears: "I loved the way she laughed."

Inuyasha caught his breath. He realized that he was holding a conversation with someone who remembered Kagome, who remembered her laugh, her tears, her kindness and her bossiness. In finding this unexpected fellowship he was only reminded more painfully of his own solitude, aggravated by so many weeks among strangers, among people who did not see the truth when they looked at him.

Since leaving Botan, no one Inuyasha had encountered could have shared more in his measureless understanding of solitude than Nobunaga, who in youth had been vivacious and open but had wasted it nursing the barb of a lonely love. He had thus grown into a taciturn pack animal, tall and strong, appearing capable of uprooting a house if he shook off his placidness.

"Well, if that's the way it is," Inuyasha said, "then I might as well go on."

"You're going to look for her?"

"I said I was, didn't I!"

The villagers tried to get him to stay of course, and they tried even harder to give him something to eat or something else of value. He could not consider taking anything from the pitiful store of food they had left, and nothing else they had could be of any use to him. He took his leave of Nobunaga, saying nothing more than "take care", and he went into the forest to sleep.

A silver birch against the cerulean sky was enough to make Shippou want to cry. When the rains had ended, he had looked up at the dazzling stars hoping for nothing more than hope itself, and found only a gaping hole where Kagome had been. When the sun rose the following morning, the light spread out over a land washed clean of everything he remembered, yet his memories remained stronger than ever. Before lunchtime he realized that the interminable rains had been cloaking his heartbreak.

The rains had not so heavily affected Kagura because, indeed, her whole life had been spent as though it had been raining. At least, that's how she remembered it. Bereft though she was of her powers, she was still a demon, and had not suffered the lack of food and clean water that inflicted the land.

Shippou had not suffered those inflictions either, not to any significant degree, but now, under the October sun, every step in this strange, friendless land became unbearable. His nose was overcome by the smells of steaming earth, disease, decay, and rust. Lakes lay where there had been valleys. Fields and meadows were now choked wetlands. He forced his feet to continue moving forward through a metamorphosed land of pitiless indifference, despite the heavy chain dragging him down to the acknowledgment of the collapse of his past.

Kagura walked on without noticing the distress of her companion. They had been trying to travel straight south through the mountains, toward the Hyouden, but it had been difficult because the hills were still subject to sudden and bothersome mudslides and the valleys were mostly flooded. Kagura was about to suggest that they find or build a boat and simply float the rest of the way when she noticed Shippou was not beside her.

She turned and saw that he was several yards behind, taking tottering steps and leaning on every tree along the way.

"What's the matter with you?" she called back.

He held up his hand and then lowered himself to the ground, murmuring something.

"What?" she called back. Then she sighed in repressed annoyance and walked back to him.

"I just need to stop," he hung his head. "I need to think for a minute."

"If you're trying to think of what to do when we get there," Kagura said, "I highly suggest you think of something good. I for one can't imagine what you plan to say to Sesshoumaru."

Shippou paid no attention to her. His eyes narrowed and Kagura got the impression that he was listening for something.

"What is it?"

"Shhh!" he hissed. "Wait a sec."

Then his eyes widened.

"Look out!" he cried, leaping forward and throwing her to the ground.

A week had passed since their wedding under the stars, and Sango was still a virgin. Since she and Miroku were still living with Momiji under a rock near the crashing waves of the ocean, this was not surprising, and was not the subject of their first marital spat.

The discord arose when Sango realized that Miroku had no intention of searching for their friends, including Kirara, or of pursuing Naraku.

Momiji was dreaming of sun-drenched fields of gold, where she and Kyotou walked hand in hand, when she was rudely awakened by Sango's piercing voice.

"How can you say that?" the demon slayer was demanding.

Momiji popped open one bleary eye. Dawn was just breaking, and the newlyweds were standing just outside the shelter. Momiji did not move, but watched their legs and listened.

"You said it yourself, Sango," it was the voice of Miroku. "By moving forward, we triumph. Going down that old road is not moving forward."

"I didn't mean we should forsake our friends!"

"Sango, I'm sorry—they are probably already dead."

Momiji did not hear the response to this from the demon slayer, if there was one, but the monk went on.

"Kagome was in the very center of it. And Inuyasha…if he survived it, he would have found us by now. Maybe he got the same idea. Maybe he gave up."

The name Inuyasha rang a bell in Momiji's head. She remembered a dog-demon, or was he a half-demon? She wasn't sure.

"Inuyasha would _never_ give up!" Sango declared with fervor. Momiji could tell that she was standing now very close to her new husband.

Something hit the ground. The monk had been carrying something, driftwood for the fire perhaps, and he had thrown it down.

"And look where it got him, Sango!" he was shouting now. "Look where it got him!"

"You don't have to yell, monk," Sango's voice was cold.

Miroku started to turn away, but stopped or was stopped.

"What are we supposed to do?" Sango asked him. "Wait around for your curse to carry you off? Are you planning that to be the end for both of us? Or were you just going to wonder off alone into the forest one day to make a hole in it?"

Momiji was very still. She did not understand this exchange at all, but it sounded alarming, and it must have been something of heavy seriousness, because Sango's questions were followed by a shocked silence.

Then Miroku turned and walked away.

"Don't walk away from me!" Sango shouted, before going after him.

Momiji sighed and pulled her ratty blanket over her head.

Once it was clear that the apparition of Kagome was not returning, Kikyou turned her back to leave. Taking steps filled with resolved, she crossed the enigmatic flowers, going back the way she came.

The flowers showed no sign of ending. Kikyou stopped for a moment and spoke aloud.

"There must be a way out, because I must leave."

In the next instant, she was standing at the mouth of the cave. At first, she did not notice it, but gradually she became aware that a hand was gripping hers. She looked up and saw Kohaku looking down at her, his expression grave.

"Kikyou-sama," he said. "Can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Kikyou peered up at him in bewilderment.

"When did you get so tall?"

Kohaku knitted his brow.

"Umm…recently?" he suggested.

Kikyou realized then that she had been seeing him as the same boy that she had first seen in Naraku's possession. Five years had passed since then and she had been unable, or unwilling, to notice. She saw him now as tall as Inuyasha, with broad shoulders, and she blushed to think of all the nights they spent lying in the dark with their backs together.

"I'm sorry, Kohaku-san," she said. "I have done you a great injustice. I will try to not repeat it."

"Kikyou-sama?"

"Come," she placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's time to go."

Upon leaving the cave, they were both obliged to cover their eyes.

"What is that light?" Kikyou asked, wincing.

Kohaku stood blinking. Then he extended his arms and looked up at the sky.

"It is the sun!" he cried. "Kikyou-sama, look, it's morning!"

Kikyou shaded her eyes and looked around. The sky was bright and blue, the kind of blue that only happened in October. It appeared to be the middle of the morning. Dawn was long past, and the sun was a white disc in the sky. There was not a cloud in sight.

As they stood transfixed by the unexpected phenomenon, Kikyou heard a low rumble. She glanced to her right and saw the demon cat, Kirara, sitting and looking at them, her pink eyes curious and expecting.

"Kirara, are you okay?" Kohaku went to her and rubbed her head.

The cat closed her eyes and responded by pressing her ears into his neck. Then there was nothing next to Kohaku but a puff of smoke. Kikyou started. Kohaku now held a small, yellow kitten in his hands, pressing his face into her tiny nose.

"This is her other form?" Kikyou asked him.

"Yep. Cute, huh?"

Kikyou stood silent and still for a moment, then Kohaku heard her bow fall to the ground with a clatter. He looked up in surprise to see her reaching for Kirara. She caught the small demon up in her arms and pressed her cheek to the diminutive nose.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, squeezing the cat (a little too hard) and rocking her back and forth. "How adorable!"

Kohaku smiled to himself. _So she is a girl, after all._

"Ah, Kikyou-sama," he interrupted her raptures gently. "What now?"

"Hmm?" Kikyou glanced up. "Oh, right. I think I know which way to go."

She let Kirara down. The cat demon trotted to Kohaku's side.

"Oh?"

"Yes, you see, I always hear her heart beating," Kikyou explained. "I'm sure that sounds weird to you, but I do, and I think I can follow it."

"Who do you mean?"

"Kagome."

"Ah yes, Kagome-sama."

"You remember her?" Kikyou asked.

"Yes," he said simply.

The memory seemed to pain him, so Kikyou did not ask him more.

"Kikyou-sama, it's not that I'm not grateful."

Kikyou looked at him, confused.

"But I think I should be looking for my sister."

Kikyou had not expected that, but she realized that she should have. She stood there outside the cave, in the light of the first afternoon, forbidding herself to cry.

"I do not think we should separate, Kohaku-san," she said.

"I know, but…" he trailed off.

"Did not your sister travel with Kagome? I never knew her name, but she was a demon slayer, correct?"

Kikyou looked at Kirara.

"Now that I think of it, I'm fairly sure I've seen this cat before."

There was a silent and crowded pause.

"It's getting easier, isn't it?" Kohaku asked in almost a whisper.

Kikyou did not trust herself to answer.

"As I was saying," she said after a few moments, "perhaps your path still lays with me?"

Kohaku smiled. It was like the sun rising again.

"Right. You're right, of course, Kikyou-sama."

He placed Kirara on his shoulder.

"So then, which way do we go?"

Their first task was to return to the former village of the demon slayers, to salvage what they could for a journey of unknown length. They found blankets that were tattered and full of holes, but still better than nothing. It did not take more than the clear autumn air to remind them that the rains had swallowed the summer, and winter would be soon on its way. Food was not to be found, nor clean water (which worried Kikyou the most), but they did find medicine and herbs, dry and crumbling but still worthy.

They both left the village with packs strapped across their backs. Kikyou had also found more arrows, and her quiver was full. Kohaku carried his usual chained sickle, but also a large knife he had found in the village and now wore strapped to his waist. The path took them past the cave again, but they both refused to look at it. They headed southwest.

The sun blazed down, white and radiant like a single daisy in a blue field. Despite this, traveling was still unpleasant. The earth was now steaming and the air seemed heavy and putrid. Most paths were still either trenches through swamps or slicks of mud. After the first day, Kikyou looked down at her clothes and surmised that it might even be difficult to persuade someone that she was a miko. At least before, the rain had continuously washed away the worst of it.

Around midday Kohaku persuaded his companion to wait for him while he searched for food. After an hour, he returned with a few small skinned animals. It took almost another hour to find fuel that would burn. Kikyou did not watch as he cooked them, she preferred to not guess what they might have been.

That night, as they settled before another puny, crackling fire, Kohaku asked her if she might favor him with a song before they went to sleep. The request startled Kikyou with its normalcy. To sit in front of a fire, under the stars, and sing songs was just such a normal, _living,_ thing to do. She had enjoyed singing once, when every forest still looked new to her, but she imagined that none now remembered that about her.

Except maybe Kaede. Kikyou realized with guilt that she had not thought of her sister since before her rebirth. She wondered how she had fared during the rains and could not help but feel the urge to turn around and go in that direction.

But no, her task was clear, and she knew by the pull of Kagome's beating heart that her path did not lie in that direction.

"Kikyou-sama?" Kohaku was looking at her intently. "I am sorry if I offended you. You needn't be troubled."

"Huh?" Kikyou looked up. "Oh, no, I was just thinking…of what to sing."

Kikyou thought back over her past and tried to remember a song, but she could only recall "Kagome, Kagome", and saying that out loud into the dark wilderness seemed unwise. So instead she dredged through the lush gully of her heart for something prodigious, and she sang of her last experience as a false human, only reimagined and redrawn, as everything was now reimagined and redrawn.

_By the river at sunset_

_To marching drums I was drawn_

_The rhythm now I forget_

_No one else could hear the noise_

_I followed some unknown intention_

_Prisoner of all her secret joys_

_From the rim of the sun did come_

_Where once they did make grain_

_The new sound of old Death_

_She didn't know I was listening_

_So she sang out loud and long_

_To the sunset and the twilight and forever_

_Of her task, her nothing, and her never _

_I heard her secret joys_

_I heard her pluck the strings_

_As if there were never an end_

_To life, to rebirth, to Spring_

_Her words became the pulling string_

_I was brought to her and on my knees_

_I saw her laugh as she did hear_

_My tiny heartbeat in her ear_

"_You're already mine"  
Oh, I saw her sign_

_The ocean of life churning in her eyes_

_The souls, before her away they fly_

_I cried and begged and hid my face_

_And she said these magic words:_

"_You are not the one, I will return, but you are not the one."_

_She said these magic words and I fell down into the dreaming world for days_

"_You are not the one, I will return, but you are not the one."_

"_I'm just passing you by, girl, passing you by, on my way, on my way."_

After a few moments of silence, Kikyou laughed, a small and cheerless sound.

"That must sound like nonsense."

"No," Kohaku answered slowly, staring into the fire. "No, I understood it. It is difficult isn't it? Coming back?

Kikyou still did not trust herself to answer.

_And I said I would do this, why_? Tamotsu thought to himself with consternation.

Tamotsu began to consider the possibility that he was going insane. Perhaps this was all a figment of his imagination. The earthquake, the mostly dead miko, the possession of Rin, the rains—all were products of his insanity. In reality, he was probably chained in the cellar of the Hyouden, raving and frothing at the mouth.

It worried him that this thought was so comforting. You've really messed up somewhere when involuntary confinement feels like a win.

He had left the Hyouden with the intent of finding a priestess—_one, measly, stupid little priestess—_and instead found only disease, starvation, and misery. Humans were perishing in droves, brought down by lack of food and clean water or by floods and mudslides. Many had succumbed to the poison that was carried in the rain in its earliest days.

Demons did not fare much better. Lower forms of demon needed food and drink almost as much as humans, and only the carrion feeders slept will full stomachs. Higher demons did not need sustenance, or did not need as much, but that was small comfort to those that watched their palace crumbled off the mountainside, their cave fill with pestilential water, or their house become buried in mud. Many warred bitterly with humans and other demons for resources, relatively dry patches of earth being the most precious. There was plenty of death to go around.

Now he sat on a crag that jutted up out of a noxious swamp, his only company one valiant birch tree that clung to life. The few mikos he had come across so far had little power to speak of, either because they had never had it, or because they had been drained by deprivation. After more than three months of the most miserable travel he could remember (and he had a long memory), the rains had finally cleared. It was a small triumph to be able to walk under the sun, but the land remained desolate. As he sat thinking of what to do next and wondering if the Hyouden would still be standing when he returned, he heard voices drifting to his sharp ears from far away. It was the sound of singing.

_You are not the one, I will return, but you are not the one._

_She said these magic words and I fell down into the dreaming world for days._

_You are not the one, I will return, but you are not the one._

_I'm just passing you by, girl, passing you by, on my way, on my way._

His nose picked up the scent of humans, which he surmised were about a half a mile ahead of him and a little off the road. Not wishing for unnecessary exertion, he approached them with caution. When he caught sight of them he saw that there were two of them and that one was a priestess, for she was wearing the garb that he now recognized. The other was a young man who seemed to be her bodyguard.

Tamotsu walked straight into the light of their fire and placed himself directly in front of them. Even though they appeared to be almost asleep, he was prepared for an immediate reaction of fight or flight. When the man nearly cut his ear off with a curved blade that he sent flying on a chain, Tamotsu was therefore only mildly irritated.

"Wait, Kohaku-san!" the woman said.

The boy, Kohaku, paid no attention to her.

"Where did you get that weapon?" he screamed at the dog demon.

Tamotsu glanced over his shoulder. During the months of countless trials and disasters he had forgotten the weight of the strange weapon he had found on the same day he had found Kagome.

"This?" he asked. "Do you know it?"

"Answer me, demon!" the boy shouted at him.

"You are hardly in the position to give orders," Tamotsu returned, fixing him with a cold stare. "And how would cutting my face off get your questions answered?"

The boy lowered his weapon, but only slightly.

"That is the Hiraikotsu," he said, indicating the weapon. "But there is only left who wields it. So I ask you again, where did you get that weapon?"

Tamotsu sighed. Since this was the closest he had come to a real miko in weeks, he decided to play along, at least for now.

"I found this amongst the ruin and destruction of a battle, three months ago," he said. "When the rains started."

The boys expression turned to one of dread.

"Tell me," Tamotsu continued. "Did this 'one person' travel with Kagome?"

As soon as that name left Tamotsu's lips, the boy raised his weapon again, and the woman had placed an arrow on her bow and leveled it at his chest in less than three seconds. He could feel the potential for purification singeing his chest.

_Uh oh, _he thought, _slight miscalculation._

"Where is she?" the woman's voice was cold and stern.

"Back the way I came," Tamotsu answered with a nonchalant jab of his thumb over his shoulder. "If you want to see her, come with me."

The two travelers eyed him suspiciously, then looked at each other. Tamotsu rolled his eyes.

"If I wanted to eat you, I would have by now."

"You would have tried," the woman said.

"Right," Tamotsu conceded. "As you say. As long as you come with me. I have traveled for months looking for you."

"Why?" the woman asked him.

"Well, I could say that it was because she needs healing, because I want to get her out of Sesshoumaru's hair, or because I told Rin that I would."

Tamotsu scratched the back of his neck and looked up at the night sky, as if to reaffirm to himself that it really wasn't raining anymore.

"But I think we both know I did it because I was supposed to."

He sighed.

"It's going to get really boring," he complained, "if from now on I know everything is so neatly ordered and arranged."

The woman stared at him, attempting to register this sudden abundance of new information. She lowered her weapon and returned the arrow to its place.

"My name is Kikyou," she said.

Kohaku had long stopped listening to them. He had withdrawn some distance away, and was holding Kirara to his face.

"Kohaku-san," Kikyou called. "We should go."

Kohaku rejoined her.

"I was hoping Kirara could give some clues as to what happened that day. But I don't think she remembers."

He lowered his head, and Kikyou placed a soft, comforting hand on his neck.

"Do not despair," she said. "I believe that we will all be reunited before the end. I believe we have to be."

Kohaku shook his head, but did not answer. After a few minutes, he leveled his gaze at Tamotsu.

"Do you think we can trust him?" he asked bluntly.

"You're a real polite one, aren't you?" Tamotsu retorted.

Kikyou ignored them.

"I'm not sure if you know this, Kohaku-san," she said, "but Sesshoumaru-sama is Inuyasha's brother."

"Half-brother," Tamotsu corrected automatically, before turning to stare at her. "Wait, what? How do you know that?"

Kikyou smiled at him.

"You look so much like him," she said to Tamotsu. "Sesshoumaru-sama, I mean."

"Yes, he does," Kohaku agreed.

"So you do know him?" Kikyou turned to him.

"I feel like I do, or did," Kohaku answered. "It's still fuzzy. But I can see the resemblance."

"Yes, it is said that the older brother resembles the mother, and the younger the father," Tamotsu said, flustered. "But, how do you know Inuyasha?"

"That is a long story, and one that I hardly think you'd believe anyway," Kikyou said. "I wish to waste no time getting to Kagome."

"In that case," Tamotsu put both hands around her waist and hoisted her over his shoulder in one movement.

"Iieee!" Kikyou shrieked, before she could regain her dignity. "Put me down this instant!"

"Get your hands off of her!" Kohaku shouted, brandishing his weapon again.

"Don't worry, kid," Tamotsu chuckled. "I'll get your pretty little thing back to you unspoiled, more or less."

"Don't you _dare _insult Kikyou-sama like that!"

Kikyou decided she had had just about enough of this frivolity.

"Put me down at once, dog demon, or I'll—

She broke off, glancing toward Kohaku. She whispered the rest in Tamotsu's ear.

Tamotsu's face betrayed a disgusted terror, and he dropped Kikyou on the ground without ceremony. She stood up and dusted the back of her hakama.

"That hurt," she complained.

"Not near as much as what you threatened me with," he accused.

"Well, I trust we'll have no further trouble," she said.

"So in spite of all this talk of wanting to hurry," he grumbled, "you aim to walk all the way there."

"Kirara, that's your cue," Kohaku said, letting the little cat demon jump to the ground.

Tamotsu's confusion evaporated when she transformed into something roughly the size of an ox.

"Oh, no way!" he exclaimed, suddenly delighted. "I've never seen a nekomata!"

"You can admire her later," Kikyou said after she and Kohaku were securely mounted. "Lead the way."

The rains had come alarmingly close to decimating his house, and they _had_ decimated his land. A half-dead human miko was being nursed back to health down the hall from his bedroom, nursed by a human adolescent girl, who had just recently been possessed by the spirit of his dead mother.

She _was_ dead, right?

Oh, and the human miko was his brother's lover.

_Half-brother,_ he corrected himself.

She _was_ his lover, right?

_Damn. _He was not sure, and it was inconceivable that he would ask her.

With every day it was becoming more difficult to ignore the sense of change and dread that had been with him since he had first discovered the spider demons were missing.

_Just the same_, he tried repeating to himself often, _the same as it ever was._

Was that good or bad?

_Damn._

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Jaken had come into the room.

Sesshoumaru's eyes remained closed.

"Tamotsu has returned."

No answer.

"He and another human miko are at the door."

Sesshoumaru open his eyes and turned his head toward his servant. Jaken trembled and avoided eye contact.

"Jaken," his cold voice made Jaken cringe. "I apologize."

Jaken gawked at him.

"I believe," Sesshoumaru continued, "that I have just suffered some cataclysm of the brain. I heard you say Tamotsu had brought another human here, but that cannot be."

Jaken looked like he was going to be sick, and he prostrated himself on the floor.

"I tried to tell him to go away, Sesshoumaru-sama!" he blubbered. "But he would not listen to me. And this miko that's with him, she will not leave either. I think you know each other."

Sesshoumaru reattached his sword to his hip and made his way to the front of the house.

_Damn. _Did every road in this cursed country lead to his door?

He was not at all prepared for what was waiting for him. Standing outside his north door, where only a short length of grass separated the threshold from the cliffs of the sea, stood Tamotsu in the autumn moonlight. Some sort of small animal perched on his shoulder and Sesshoumaru realized it was a demon cat. Next to him stood the same young man who had been the brainwashed puppet of Naraku. Off to the right, standing with a bow almost as tall as she was, was the miko who had imprisoned his half brother to a tree, more than fifty years ago.

At least, it _looked _like her.

"Sesshoumaru!" Tamotsu greeted him joyfully. "You won't believe me, but how I've missed you! But then, the trip I've had, let me tell you."

Sesshoumaru did not look at him. He drew his sword and leveled it at the woman.

"Who are you," he asked her, "that come to my door without leave? You resemble someone I know but that I owe no hospitality, and you cannot possibly be her anyway. What are you playing at?"

The woman did not answer, but the man next to her drew his weapon, a chained scythe. Sesshoumaru's gaze did not leave the woman.

"That is not the first time you've drawn your weapon for me, witless boy," he grated. "But it will be the last."

The woman had an arrow pointed at Sesshoumaru's chest in blurred moment. The kitten on Tamotsu's shoulder leapt to the ground and transformed into a flaming cat demon, with two tails and larger than the greatest tiger.

Tamotsu stared at the four of them.

"Damn!" he exclaimed. "Nobody ever tells me anything!"

[End of Chapter Sixteen]

[Next Chapter: Long, Long Way to Go]

**Author's Notes:**

Kikyou's song is loosely based on the song "Fever", by Neko Case (featured on the album Middle Cyclone). Thanks for reading!


	17. A Long, Long Way to Go

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Seventeen: Long, Long Way to Go**

"_While I sit here trying to think of things to say  
Someone lies bleeding in a field somewhere  
So it would seem we've still got a long, long way to go" – Phil Collins_

The dreaming world departed with the rains, but did not take with it all dreams. Instead, Kagome's sleep became the ordinary shuffle of memories, turned upside down or inside out, which all creatures experience in the cold dark. Prophets, dead heroes, or unseen forces did not deliver her visions to her; they were now only the tangled threads pulled from her feverish heart.

Kagome still slept most of the time, because her body was stripped of energy by her ordeal and by atrophy, and because she could not yet walk and it was the only way to pass the time. Rin was convinced that Kagome would heal faster if she could at least sit up, so her futon was moved to the corner, with seed pillows piled high against the wall so that she could rest in a sitting position. Kagome spent her waking hours leaning back on this arrangement, staring out the window next to her, where all she could see was the sky and all she could smell was moldy death tainted with sea salt.

Her composure swung between boredom and terror. To offer herself some relief, she recalled and reexamined what Midoriko and Ichiro had said to her, again and again. She considered the possible locations where her friends may be hiding. She considered the possible ways she could broach the subject with Sesshoumaru.

_By the way, your dead papa said you have to not kill me! Or my friends! So there!_

Kagome groaned whenever this matter reoccurred to her. She could not decide whether she was glad or annoyed that the master of the house had not reentered her room since she awoke the first time.

Kagome sighed and shifted her weight on the mattress that was beginning to feel like a slab of concrete.

_There's something to think about: something to call this room besides 'my room'. It is most definitely _not _my room._

It was easier to sleep, and she had resolved to do just that, when her chest was seized by a violent pinch. Kagome sat back up, gasping.

It was a sacred jewel shard. Her mind was overcome, and all other thoughts scattered, by the irresistible urge to get closer to it. She ached for its power and thirsted for the comfort of familiarity that it offered. She was considering whether or not she dared to attempt standing, much less leaving the room, when Rin burst in, running and panting.

"Kagome-chan!" she exclaimed. "Someone's here! I think they—

She stopped short when she saw Kagome's wide eyes and pale cheeks.

"Kagome-chan?"

"I know someone is here," Kagome whispered. "I need to get to them."

Kagome sat clutching her chest, her wide eyes staring in front of her, but Rin only half-noticed.

"I think they're about to fight Sesshoumaru-sama," Rin lamented.

Kagome looked at her and saw that the girl was distraught.

"It's bad," she continued. "Because one of them is Kohaku-kun!"

"What?" Kagome gasped.

"What?" she repeated. "That's not possible!"

"But I saw him! He's grown since the last time we met, but I know it's him. Please, if you come, maybe you can stop them!"

Kagome had stopped listening to the girl. She was rubbing her chin, going back in her mind over her most recent memories.

She saw Kagura's haunted eyes. _Naraku says that he is dead._

"Naraku _said_ he was dead," Kagome said out loud.

"What?" Rin asked her.

"It's nothing. Never mind." Kagome pushed her blankets aside. "Rin-chan, I need to get down there. But, I don't know if I can."

"I will help you."

Rin squatted on the balls of her feet and brought Kagome's left arm, the stronger one, around her shoulders, and then stood up. They waved and wobbled for a moment, like a pair of cattails in the wind, but managed at last to steady themselves. Rin took the first few careful steps, hoping to give Kagome time to adjust to the shock of putting any weight on her legs.

The journey seemed endless. They had to leave the room, go down the hall to the main stairs, down the stairs, through the entry hall on the first floor, and out the front door. Kagome's knees buckled often and, even with Rin's assistance, she was sweating and gasping for breath even before they had left the second floor. By the time they reached the threshold, her shining eyes no longer responded to Rin and her face had a gray pallor.

"Sesshoumaru, I think there's been a misunderstanding," Tamotsu was saying.

He lifted his hands in a mollifying gesture, but did not dare place himself between his cousin and the miko who had just arrived, not knowing if the sword or the arrow was the bigger threat.

"I brought this woman here to help that other one heal faster," he continued. "I thought you'd be pleased. The sooner she's healed the sooner you can get rid of her."

"You are a fool," Sesshoumaru said coldly without looking at him. "This woman has tricked you into bringing her here. To what nefarious purpose I cannot imagine. Nor can I imagine how she planned to get away with it."

"Indeed," the woman spoke for the first time, her arrow still pointed at Sesshoumaru's chest. "If that were true, then I don't see how I would get away with it either."

Sesshoumaru did not respond, but Tamotsu turned to stare at her. Rin, still holding Kagome, looked across the way at her and wondered where she had seen her before. Her eyes fell on Kohaku, who was still holding his weapon and had not noticed her yet.

Rin heard Kagome whisper under her breath, "if you can't get here fast enough…"

"Therefore," the other priestess continued, "it must not be true."

She lowered her weapon with resignation, and placed the arrow in her quiver again.

"It's not a trick, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said. "I am exactly what I appear to be."

"That's not possible," he insisted.

"Yes, I said the same thing. But I think you'll find that those behind all this pay little attention to our notions of 'possible'. Or of convenience, for that matter."

"Those behind all this?"

The woman was about to say something else, but was stopped short. She stared over Sesshoumaru's shoulder and her face drained of color.

Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu turned toward the house and saw Rin, supporting a sinking Kagome, standing just outside the door. Kagome lifted her head and reached out a hand.

Even from where she stood, Rin heard the woman repress a choked sob. Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu could smell the salt of her new tears. Her bow fell unheeded to the stone path with a clatter, and then she was dashing past them.

Rin was almost at the end of her ability to support Kagome, and just as Kikyou reached them she fell to her knees, catching Kagome in her arms.

Kikyou looked over the other vessel of her soul and was horrified at her condition. The worst was the scar that ran down Kagome's right arm. Kikyou knew from the memories they had exchanged amongst the field of bellflowers what had caused it, and she raged even as she held Kagome close and tight.

"Damn you! Damn you!" she cried, her voice broken by racking sobs. "Why did you do that? Foolish girl!"

Kagome did not answer; her exertions had caused her to lose consciousness. Kikyou rocked the girl in her arms.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I know I failed you. I won't again, I swear."

Rin was staring down at the two of them, dumbfounded.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Kikyou could not control her voice enough to answer, but Kohaku was standing behind her.

"This is Kikyou-sama, Rin-chan," he said.

Rin looked up at the man who had swallowed up the boy she once knew, and she experienced a strange compulsion to cry, but did not understand it.

"Kohaku-kun," was all she could say.

He looked away, avoiding her eyes.

Tamotsu happened to look at Kohaku at that moment. The boy seemed in possession of a terrible struggle; he clenched his trembling jaw and kept his pale face still.

Sesshoumaru, meanwhile, observed this scene with no small amount of astonishment. He had to admit to himself that if this woman were playing at being that other priestess, she was doing an admirable job.

Tamotsu, for his part, wondered if anything he ever did again would _not _be preordained in some way.

"Kohaku-san," Kikyou said at last, wiping her cheeks with her sleeve. "Can you please pick her up?"

She looked up at Rin. "We will take her back to bed now."

It was not a request. Kohaku—still pale and avoiding the sight of Rin—cradled Kagome in his arms and, along with Kikyou, approached the door. Sesshoumaru appeared before them without warning, still holding his sword.

"You know perfectly well that you cannot bar my way," Kikyou moved to enter the house.

"How dare you," he took a step toward her, the point of his sword level with her heart.

"You cannot harm me Sesshoumaru-sama, and you know it," Kikyou told him, "or part of you knows it. You are stronger than I will ever be or have ever been—alive, dead, or reborn—but a universe of intent lies upon your hand, and it is too heavy."

The air between them grew still. Kikyou looked into Sesshoumaru's eyes and saw that she was going to need more fortitude than she previously thought because, though she saw doubt in his eyes and a crease of vexation mar his brow, he held his ground, and seemed more than prepared to sacrifice everything for the sake of appearances.

This was Kikyou's understanding of Sesshoumaru, when they faced each other on that pale autumn night, when Shippou had just once again saved Kagura from a certain death and when his first supplicant stopped Inuyasha on his journey. Her understanding was insufficient, however. It was not for appearances' sake that Sesshoumaru continued to ignore the urgings of Fate that were pressing upon him, but it was for his own opinion of himself—the only opinion that mattered.

Not knowing why, not even knowing she was doing it until it was almost done already, Kikyou reached out and laid one hand on his arm. Sesshoumaru did not react, and did not draw away.

After a moment, Kikyou and Kohaku entered the house without further interference. As she passed, Kikyou paused for a moment and spoke to him again.

"Do not fight it, Sesshoumaru-sama. You would only add to your misery."

Jaken, who had witnessed everything from behind the door, cringed when he heard these words.

Sesshoumaru stood quite still for a moment or two, and then he turned to glare at Tamotsu.

"Now, there's no use getting angry at me!" his cousin protested.

"Oh no?" Sesshoumaru's voice was mild, but Tamotsu was not fooled. "Then tell me, how do you suggest I react to your filling my house with priestesses?"

Tamotsu waved that aside.

"Oh, don't exaggerate."

Sesshoumaru clenched his teeth and Tamotsu could tell that his cousin was in real danger of losing his temper.

"I do not believe in any destiny that I have not made," Sesshoumaru grated.

Tamotsu shook his head wearily. "I really don't have the energy for this discussion right now. Like I said, that journey was a nightmare."

He turned away and went into the house.

Sesshoumaru also went into the house, but whereas Tamotsu was only thinking of finding a jug of saki and a warm spare bed, Sesshoumaru was considering the best method of dispatching three, possibly four, humans with one stroke. In the entry room he crossed the bamboo mats and reached for the sliding door, but stopped. A movement drew his attention to the side. To his quiet astonishment, he saw that the ink on the wall murals was writhing like black worms, and Sesshoumaru watched as they shifted before his eyes. He turned to look at Jaken, who had followed him.

"Have these always—

"No, my lord, they change. They're alive now, you know."

Sesshoumaru turned back to see a collection of stylized people gathered around a feast table. One woman sat at the head, beckoning her guest to take their fill. Unlike the other females present, her hair was let down, white and wild, and her mouth was wide open in a raucous laugh. The shifting ink made her eyes turn toward him, and he thought the laugh was now more mocking than merry.

Whether or not they ever went after Naraku, or searched for their friends, they could not live forever under a rock by the ocean. Even Miroku was not so unreasonable as to suppose otherwise. After a few weeks had passed with no rain, Momiji thought it now possible to return to her village. There was never any question that Miroku and Sango would go with her. In some ways, they still looked upon her as a warden. The more he considered the plan, the more Miroku approved of it, even rejoiced in it. They would return to the village, help rebuild it, and settle there themselves. Nothing could be more fitting. He resolved with inflexible determination to not consider anything beyond that.

Momiji's anxiousness to return to her home was aided in part by the discomfort she experienced being in the constant company of the newlyweds. At first, she feared the awkwardness of being an unwelcome third party, an outsider witness to the needs of physical affection. As it turned out, that could not have been further from the case. Momiji's unease and embarrassment came from being forced to bear witness to their endless wrangling.

Their chief discord arose over whether they would search for their other friends, or seek out someone called Naraku, who Momiji gathered was an enemy. But they bickered over everything else as well—over food, sleep, fuel for the fire, the weather, their suppositions about the other's feelings and their imagined insults. On more than one occasion, Momiji resisted the urge to run mad and screaming into the ocean.

They had fixed the day for their relocation and, Miroku carrying Momiji's pack with what food they could store, they left the place that had been their home for over four months and they retraced the steps Miroku and Momiji had taken to get there.

The sun had baked most of the moisture out of the earth by now so the air was more clear and crisp, announcing, along with the sharp blue sky, that autumn was well along.

In truth, it was early November, and Kikyou and Kohaku had been at the Hyouden with Kagome for two weeks, and Inuyasha was just leaving Nobunaga. But Miroku and Sango knew nothing of these things.

When the travelers were obliged to cross over a gully or climb a steep hill, Sango would lag behind, and Momiji suspected that her right arm was not yet fully healed, though the demon slayer would not complain of it.

Miroku, however, had no such reservations and never failed to remark that his wife was slowing them down. This encouraged Sango to suggest that they would all fare better if he would help her find Kirara, or that it was his fault anyway because he had prepared their breakfast so poorly, at which Miroku would invite her to find her own food, provoking Sango to retort that since he was such a manly and assertive husband that he should have no need of her aid, just like he never had any need for her advice or input or opinion, and so on.

Momiji endured this with saintly patience for two days. Whenever she began to feel that they were treating her like a piece of furniture, she reminded herself of how much they had suffered, and how much they continued to suffer. Every step she took closer to her home, however, reminded her of the loss, grief, and privation _she_ had suffered. As they walked along on the second day, the sun setting behind the heavy cypress that lined the left of the path, Miroku and Sango were discussing, with vivid detail, his many past transgressions against her trust, when Momiji lost her restraint.

"Shut the fuck up!" she suddenly turned and screamed at them.

Miroku and Sango stopped in mid tirade, mouths still open, and stared at her in astonishment.

"What the hell is the matter with you? When I first saw you, you were near death. Now, you are alive, healthy, and together. What the hell is the matter with you? By sheer will alone I have kept you two alive, and suffered my own grief and loss in silence, and for what? To listen to your infantile bickering all day? You could not have each other at all, you could have nothing, you could be dead!"

Miroku hung his head, and Sango flushed.

"If I hear one more word out of either of you, I swear I will find a rock or a stick and beat you both to death. Then I shall give up being a priestess, because I will never again serve gods who delivered me two such unworthy, ungrateful persons as you!"

She walked on, and Miroku and Sango followed her like meek, scolded children. From then on they made and broke camp when she said to, ate when and what she said to, and never dared utter a word in her presence that was not "please" or "thank you".

This forced silence afforded them the opportunity for self-reflection, and they found little to their pleasure. Sango blushed with shame and vexation at her behavior in front of Momiji, whom she really hardly knew at all. Miroku felt more disgraced in his own eyes by his behavior towards his wife. After the first heat of mortification and anger had passed and given way to cool insight, he saw it as unkind, unloving, and unmanly, and dishonorable to anyone who called himself 'husband'.

Momiji noticed the next day that, instead of complaining when his wife fell behind, Miroku went back to help her, which was met with shy, complaisant smiles. By the time they reached the village, they were able to exchange in pleasant tones and share in warm glances, and Momiji breathed a sigh of relief.

As she made her way to investigate the ruins of her old home, she thought to herself, _maybe I could give up being a priestess and travel the countryside, curing unhappy marriages! _But she would only offer her services to mighty lords and ladies, so that she could buy herself a golden palace and pay four very handsome men to carry her around in a kago lined with silk.

Her visions of grandeur evaporated when she saw her house; silk gave way to crumbling thatch and gold to rotten wood.

"Well," she said wistfully, looking around, "I'm back."

She looked down at her feet at the ruined floor and her heart froze for a moment. The blue petals of the bellflowers were still there.

Facing down Sesshoumaru was not the last trial of Kikyou on her journey from undead to living; she still had to face Kagome. After being put back on her bed, Kagome did not wake up again for several hours, and Kikyou took that time to receive the food Rin gave her with gratitude and to think of what she would say to Kagome when she opened her eyes to see Kikyou sitting there.

What will she think?

_That I was a devil._

What will she say?

_That I should leave. That she doesn't need me._

_She doesn't need me._

During this time of dark doubt, Kikyou did not notice the suffering of Kohaku.

He sat in the corner of the room, steadfastly refusing to even look at Rin and answering any inquiry she made of him with "yes" or "no". Owing to her believing that he was the same boy she had met over five years ago, she placed a hand on his arm to ask him if he felt unwell, and he trembled so violently that she perceived she was the cause of his discomfort.

_It must be because he tried to hurt me back then, _she thought, _but Naraku made him do that!_

"Please," he murmured. "Just leave me alone."

Rin complied. It was not in her nature to force herself on others, having lived so long without human company anyway. She did, however, hope that time would ease his conscience.

What she did not understand was that her effect on Kohaku was far more complicated. It was true that he remembered their dealings in the past, and the memory pained him, just as it pained him to remember Kagome or his sister. What he felt when he saw her, however, was not the stab of his conscience but the pain of utter helplessness before her beauty. In the intervening years she had transformed as if by magic from a pretty girl into a woman that did not belong on earth. Her solitude and her indifference to convention rendered her beauty more natural, more uncontained, and more disturbing. She emitted an air of infinite lushness and gave the impression of the most yielding and inviting softness. When she touched him, Kohaku believed that he was dying of thirst and that she was a pool of cool and acquiescing water. The notion frightened him.

Rin understood none of this. She had never been around men save Sesshoumaru and Jaken, who did not really see her as she was. Tamotsu saw her, and appreciated it, but kept his distance with care. Had Rin known of that precaution, she would have died laughing. Until her last day on earth she was unaware of her exasperating and torturous effect on men.

Several hours later, nothing in the room had changed except the shadows cast by the sun. At last, when the red rays of the setting sun were reaching into the room from across the hallway and Rin was bringing them tea, Kagome opened her eyes. She stared at Kikyou for a long moment without speaking or moving. Kikyou stared back, and slowly lowered her cup, placing it on the floor beside her.

_What should I say?_

Nothing came to her mind, and nothing happened. Frogs and crickets, rejoicing in a world that was starting to live again, were all that broke the silence in the room.

Still nothing.

Kikyou's mouth felt dry. She licked her lips, and prepared herself to say something, anything.

"Kagome…" was the only sound she could bring out of her head.

"Are you real?" Kagome whispered.

Kikyou eyes widened, then she gave a small smile. She might have expected that.

"Yes."

"Why are you here?"

"To help you."

"Oh."

Kagome tried to sit up, but Kikyou placed a hand on her shoulder.

"No don't. Rest."

"Oh, Kikyou," Kagome sighed and turned her head on her pillow. "I've rested so much lately. You have no idea."

"She slept through the entire rains," Rin supplied.

"Oh?" Kikyou started.

"Yep. In fact, they ended the moment she woke up. Isn't that strange?"

Kikyou shuddered. So _that's_ how it was.

"It's not my fault," Kagome said to her, as if reading her thoughts.

"No, no it isn't."

There was silence again for a while. Kikyou tried to think of something else to say, when she was spared the chore.

"All night," Kagome breathed, "all I hear is your heart. How come?"

Kikyou froze, and her breathing became rapid. She stared with wide eyes at her hands, unable to speak, terrified but without knowing why.

_Why am I like this? Why can't I say it?_

_I'm afraid it isn't true…that I'm still dreaming. I'm afraid they'll take it away!_

With no warning, and much to Kagome's complete shock, Kikyou quite suddenly burst into tears.

"Kikyou? What…?"

Kikyou lowered her head and sobbed into Kagome's shoulder. By instinct Kagome put a hand over the woman's head to try to comfort her. She was struck all at once by the knowledge that Kikyou's hair was warm, as was her breath and tears.

Kagome felt cold creep over her. Something was wrong and she became afraid. She sat up and tried to move away.

"What is this?" she demanded. "Who are you? What are you trying to do to me?"

Kikyou's swollen eyes widened in fright and amazement.

"No, don't!" was all she could say.

Kagome shook her head.

"This isn't right. This isn't real."

"But…I…I'm not…" Kikyou, who had no problem explaining herself to Sesshoumaru, was now at a loss.

"Kagome-sama!"

Kagome looked up at that sharp voice. It was Kohaku. When she saw him, her eyes widened even more.

"Kohaku-kun!" she exclaimed with surprise, and relief.

"Kikyou-sama is real. She has endured much to get here to you. We both have."

"But…she is…"

"She is what she is," he shrugged and turned away.

Kikyou found that she now had the strength to speak.

"Kagome, I don't know what has happened. I don't know how I'm here, like this. I only know that I was supposed to find you. Midoriko said so. Do not forsake me!"

Kagome was silent for a moment. The light now was nearly gone and the sky outside was a deep shade of purple. Kohaku was trying to light a fire in the irori in the center of the room.

"Is there no token you can give or show me?"

Kikyou did not answer. After passing several minutes in silent thought, she reached out her hand, with slow care, and laid it on Kagome's arm.

Kagome felt a wave of relief as if an imprisoning veil had fallen away from her eyes and she was assured that her vision was saved. She was less tired, less anxious, and less afflicted in general. When she looked down and perceived a rosy dawn emitting from her skin, she understood and recognized the convincing proof that this was none other than Kikyou herself.

"Thank you," she said. "I feel much better."

"What was that?" Rin asked with mild curiosity.

"She purified the miasma that was still left in me," Kagome answered.

"Oh good," Rin exclaimed, picking up their teacups and stacking them on a tray. "That's what Tamotsu-sama had meant to happen."

Kagome's brow creased.

"Who is Tamotsu?"

"He is Sesshoumaru-sama's cousin. He's here a lot. I'll go see if he can come and meet you."

Rin left the room.

Kagome's gaze returned to Kikyou. She was looking at her with a questioning expression.

"What do we do now?" Kagome asked.

"I was just wondering that myself. I have no idea."

Kagome looked over to Kohaku.

"You've grown so much, Kohaku-kun, I never got the chance to say that before. You have no idea how relieved your sister will be when she learns that you're alive."

Kohaku looked at her.

"Do you mean you know that _she's _alive? I feared…"

"I know she's alive," Kagome said firmly. "I know they're all alive, somewhere."

"Kagome," Kikyou laid a hand on her shoulder. "Tell me everything."

The revelation that his house was alive and had gone nutty on him was bad enough, but nothing to compare with what happened to him when that woman had touched him.

The touch itself was a shock. Few people ever touched him and lived to tell about it. He could not fathom why he had allowed it to happen. He recalled that, in that moment, he had seen it coming as though he were paralyzed, helpless to stop it.

And then it happened. She had placed one hand on his arm, casually and easily, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as if they were old family acquaintances—which, maybe they were—and Sesshoumaru ceased to exist.

The world around him went black; everything was gone. He somehow understood, without understanding how he understood, that he had left the sphere of existence and had traveled across time and space to the rim of the universe. Sesshoumaru was treated to the same vision as experienced by Kagome in the presence of Midoriko. He saw a dense and restless swirl of galaxies, each containing an impenetrable net of stars, orbited by an endless amount of life, death, and destinies. No matter how great he would become in his life, he still occupied a space that was so minute as to be virtually meaningless.

This was the weight that stayed his hand, and banished all peaceful sleep for months to come.

It was clear to him that the woman, Kikyou as she called herself, had no idea what had happened. Something or someone was working through her. This fact alone made him more wary, and from then on he eyed every strange happenstance with suspicion.

It was also clear to him that she was not going anywhere. She settled herself in Kagome's room and had Kohaku settled in the adjacent room. When Jaken hinted, none too graciously, that thanks to the rains there was not enough food for all these humans, Kohaku took on the task of procuring their nourishment. He did this with relief, and Sesshoumaru got the distinct impression that the young man yearned to get away from the house. He now spent several hours of every day hunting and gathering food.

Kikyou also attempted to make herself useful. She took over the care of Kagome and when she was not attending to Kagome, she was cleaning. Kikyou scrubbed the house from top to bottom, banishing the cobwebs, mold, and insect activity that was threatening to overtake the house in the face of such indifference as it had known. The smell of decay was gone, and the wood and stone was now as bare and dry as bones, bleached by the salty sea air.

With no structure and no cares to tie her down, Rin's bemused otherness and solitude reached its highest point, and she went through the hazy days of her adolescence like a satellite with a remote and varying orbit. Jaken no longer made any attempts to acquaint her or his master with reality, instead abandoning them to their fate. For the sake of having something to do, he spent most of his time preparing food or washing clothes.

Tamotsu spent his days in Kagome's room. After being introduced to her by Rin, he found he was fascinated by her history, and he questioned her endlessly about the jewel, her friends, her connection to Kikyou and to Midoriko, and, most of all, her homeland.

That was how Sesshoumaru's life had become what it was in the fall of 1496. Sesshoumaru, for his part, maintained the fiction that life was moving on in much the same way as it ever did, and ignored, with a valiant effort, the evidence that contradicted this. He scoffed at transforming paintings, shrugged off the insubordinate tableware and audacious mirrors, and waved aside any uneasiness connected with Kagome and Kikyou. The only thing that changed was that he gave up sleep, because when he closed his eyes he saw a multitude of stars and felt them pulling him into oblivion. Since he was a demon, however, he did not need to sleep, and he told himself he did not miss it.

Momiji's house was the obvious choice for their initial residence as it was by far in the best condition. In her heart, Momiji attributed this to the spell of the bellflowers, but she did not mention it. When Sango questioned her about the prolific petals, Momiji shrugged and only said:

"It's a mystery."

They restored the roof first. Though it had not rained in almost a month and showed no signs of raining anytime soon, the three of them knew that winter would soon be here. The nights, with their armies of jubilant and indifferent stars, were already long and chill.

Once this was done, they moved on to the window (there was only one in the single-room hut, facing west), the door, and the beds. In a few days they could sleep in reasonable comfort. Around this time, the problem of food presented itself. The store of fish and seaweed that they had brought with them had run out, and, beyond one moldy sack of rice, there was not one morsel to be found in the ruins of the village.

They sat in mediation on this subject, weighing their options, when Sango presented them with an idea.

"I know how to set traps," she said. "For demons, I mean, but I would think it wouldn't be much different to catch rabbits or other small things."

Momiji shuddered with dread.

"Yeah," she said with some reluctance, "but…then…"

"Don't worry, Momiji-sama," Miroku comforted her. "When we have them, I will take care of it, you won't even have to see."

"I thank you, monk," Momiji said, "but it's not just that. I don't eat meat, except fish. I…I haven't in years and years."

Miroku considered that.

"Hmmm. That may be something you can no longer afford."

Momiji trembled.

Sango laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Momiji-chan, when I go out to set the traps, I will search high and low for some fruit or green things for you to eat. I'm sure I'll find something."

"Lucky for you, that will not be necessary right now."

Sango's hand flew to her side where she was accustomed to keeping a katana, only to remember in the same instant that she was still weaponless.

A man had snuck up on them where they had gathered for their conference outside Momiji's door. He was middle-aged with a stocky figure and a plain face with intense eyes. He was holding up his hands.

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "I belong here."

Sango looked to Momiji for guidance, and she saw the young priestess's face pale, then flush, and her lower jaw trembled.

For Momiji, the moment was one of endurance, as four months of misery and despair fell away like shadows banished by the dawn. She withstood the force of it well, however, and spoke in an even voice.

"Kyotou-sama," she bowed.

Sango and Miroku looked at her, then at the stranger, then back at Momiji again.

"Momiji-san," the man bowed in return.

Then he turned to look at Sango and Miroku, his eyes full of curiosity and wonder.

"It is something," he said, "to see the two of you now, standing and waking and healthy."

"Sango-chan, Miroku-sama, this is Kyotou-sama. He is the chief of this village."

Sango and Miroku bowed and murmured polite phrases.

Kyotou was carrying a large sack made of some animal's hide, and he slung it down from his shoulder and dropped it on the ground.

"I burned it almost to crisp," he said. "I've never been good at cooking. But it's still food."

He took another satchel that was attached by a strap to his belt, and gave it to Momiji.

"I also picked up what berries and nuts I could find. There's also some waterleaves that are still fit to eat. I hoped…I figured you might be here."

The sun was blaring down on them from the middle of the sky; it's white light still warm even if it was November. Momiji lamented that she could not hide her face, but Kyotou did not seem to notice. He looked around at the ruins.

"Is this the place we used to know?" he asked quietly.

Momiji did not answer.

"I think I saw some salt somewhere," Miroku said, "when we were looking for lumber. Maybe we can cure this and make it last longer."

He nudged the sack with his feet. "What is it, if you don't mind my asking?"

"A deer," Kyotou shrugged.

"Where is everyone?" Momiji asked.

"Back there a ways," Kyotou waved over his shoulder, toward the mountains. "I said I would come first and make sure it was safe. I also want to try to make more of the houses habitable."

Within a few days, they transformed two additional houses into something humans could live in. The work went much faster with an extra pair of hands. Kyotou had the ability to work like a tireless pack animal.

On the first night he spent in the village, Kyotou slept outside rather than share the house with Momiji, Sango, and Miroku. By the next night, another house was repaired, but he still slept outside, insisting that Sango and Miroku take that dwelling for themselves. They pleaded with him that his generosity, while appreciated, was unnecessary, but he would not hear them.

That night, Miroku went into the hut and sat down on the floor, rubbing his aching shoulders with his blistered hands. Gone were his monk robes, they had not withstood the months of salt and rain, and he, like Sango, had to make do with what they could find. His staff was a distant memory, and the only thing that remained of his former self were the blue beads that still kept his fateful right hand under lock and key.

"Sango-chan," he called. "Are you here?"

"Yes," her voice came from behind a screen that was placed near the far end of the room. "I'm bathing."

"Oh." Miroku wondered if there would be water left for him, or if it would be too cold by the time his turn came.

"You can come back here, you know."

Miroku stopped breathing. Why the devil hadn't he thought of that?

She was thinner than what he remembered, but he was more bothered by the thought that he himself may have withered and become too wraith like to be attractive. His worry faded under her touch, and disappeared when their bare chests were pressed firmly together.

_No space between,_he thought.

In the end Sango gave herself without ceremony and with such a fluid intuition that Miroku had the impression that, in some way, they had always been doing this. Their incurable solitude was never so clear to them as it was in this moment. They and the blend of their flesh were all that remained.

The thought came unbidden to Miroku, even as he breathed heavily into her ear.

_Let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair._

On the third day since Kyotou's arrival the rosy dawn came upon a man sleeping on moldy furs in the mud, a woman lying alone in a freezing bed, and a couple who had nothing in the world to hold on to but each other.

Taroumaru sat on a stool at the wooden counter of a roadside stand, choking down mushy clumps of rice and the cheapest saki he had ever tasted. He was alone, with no possessions besides the cloths on his back and the old sword strapped to his side. The sword meant that he had been questioned in a few places by authorities but given the general turmoil of the land, they were so far willing to believe that he was a lord's son.

That was stretching the truth, however. Taroumaru was one of many men set adrift by the rains, dispossessed of any title or power or claim to authority once his people had been scattered and lost.

Somewhere, further down the road, he discerned a growing clamor of raised voices. There seemed to be one voice addressing many, and the audience was shouting or cheering.

"What's all that racket?" he asked the merchant.

The older man, with knotty hands and almost no teeth, stopped stacking his towers of saki cups and bent his head to listen.

"Ah," he said. "That's the _movement._"

"The movement?"

"Aye. They've been carrying on like that for weeks. They call themselves the Rain People."

"Surely, they don't want more rain," Taroumaru scoffed.

"No, no. They're against it. They say that the rains were sent by gods, unhappy with the priesthood. They call for abolishing the priests, monks, and priestesses, don't ya know."

Taroumaru shrugged his shoulders. He did not care anything one way or another for priests, or gods for that matter. He paid his debt and continued on down the muddy street, taking care to go in the opposite direction of the so-called _rain people_.

[End of Chapter Seventeen]

[Next Chapter: Disarm]


	18. Disarm

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Eighteen: Disarm**

"_I used to be a little boy—so old in my shoes,_

_What I choose is my choice, what's a boy supposed to do?_

_The killer in me is the killer in you, my love._

_I send this smile over to you." -Smashing Pumpkins_

Souta carried the weight of the Higurashi shrine on his fourteen-year-old shoulders. Yuka had come to believe that she was the one who did, but she was mistaken. Her obsession with discovering the truth about Kagome had made her as much detached from reality as the reclusive and prophesying Higurashi Mikomi and even as the tottering and senile grandfather. Souta had appeared to be indifferent, but that was only because he was the only one with his feet still on the ground.

The morning after his overnight stay at Satoru's, when the rain had stopped at last, Souta discovered his mother pouring over books that she had stacked in a city of towers in the kitchen. It had not taken him long to get the truth out of her. She had apologized again and again for forgetting his birthday, and promised to make it up to him. He asked only that she open her mind to him.

What she revealed did not shock him as much as she feared. Indeed, Souta had glimpsed the vision of the Hero and the Hound himself. After over five years of watching his sister travel through time, of association with the irrefutable half-demon, Inuyasha, and being hounded by something demonic or otherworldly himself on more than one occasion, nothing surprised him. His young mind had long adapted to accept the unacceptable.

He thumbed through one of the books.

"So…this is a prophesy?" he asked.

"Yes, sort of," his mother answered. "You have to dig through the text to find the right words."

"And it's about nee-chan?"

"Yes, among other things."

"Does it say what we should do?"

Higurashi's eyes went distant, and she sighed. "No, not that I can tell."

Souta found a notebook amongst the clutter, with his mother's handwriting on it.

"What is this?"

Higurashi followed his glance.

"Oh that? I've been gathering the phrases I've discovered. Condensing, I guess you could say."

Souta could not resist.

"May I read it?" he asked her.

Higurashi nodded.

Souta studied his mother's scribbling, but could make nothing of it, and told her so.

"Yes, I know it's gibberish. I asked why it had to be so vague and obscure, but didn't get an answer."

"Who do you think he is?" Souta asked. "That man, with the white hair?"

Higurashi put down her book and was silent. After a few minutes, she nodded her head.

"I wasn't sure at first, but now I think he's Inuyasha's father."

Her son stared at her in amazement.

"I'm pretty sure now," she insisted. "It's got to be him."

Souta did not know what to say. His eyes drifted down to the paper again, and he read a line.

"_When the mother of the Beloved reads the words it shall be a sign unto you. Beware! The Enemy hunts you!"_

His blood ran cold. "Momma, didn't you think this was troubling?"

Higurashi came and peeked over his shoulder.

"Well, I don't know who the 'Beloved' is."

Souta was silent, and his eyes did not leave the paper.

"Souta?" his mother brushed his cheek. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking the 'Beloved' could be nee-chan."

Higurashi was startled. "Why do you think that?"

"Umm, well, in the first place, it's written here a lot," he pointed to several lines that mentioned the Beloved, "and you said yourself that these writings were about nee-chan. And whose mother, besides nee-chan's, could be so important? And you are 'reading words'."

His mother did not have an answer, but her eyes were doubtful.

"'The Enemy' is emphasized, as if it means someone very specific," Souta went on.

"Naraku."

Higurashi said the name for the first and last time in her life. It flared up in her mind like a coxcomb red flame and flickered out in another instant.

"Who is that?"

"Kagome has mentioned him, a few times," she explained. "He is Inuyasha's enemy, something to do with the Shikon no Tama. But I don't know the details."

"So the passage could be warning you that he's after you."

"But that's impossible, Souta-kun. No one can come through the well besides Inuyasha and Kagome. We just don't know enough yet, that passage could be talking about anyone."

Souta looked down at the notebook again. As Higurashi returned to her examination of the oracles, he continued to leaf through the pile of papers, and wondered why his mother had scribbled crescent moons on so many of them.

"Look out!"

Kagura came down on her back and a rush of air escaped her lungs with an "oomph". Shippou had landed on top of her chest, his arms covering her head.

Before she could shout at him to get off her and let her breath, his weight was gone again. Kagura sat up and saw that he was struggling with something, something black with many limbs that writhed in all directions. Whatever it was, it had lifted Shippou straight up into the air and he was trying to free himself.

"Shippou!" she cried out.

Kagura got to her feet, and was looking about in a non-thinking panic for something to do when she saw a dark figure move with hideous speed in the right field of her vision.

It was taller than any human, but its features were man-like. Kagura did not have time to make anything else out before it collided with her with its entire body. Her breath was knocked out of her again, and she pulled and fought, trying to run away. There were limbs everywhere, strong and wiry and covered with coarse, black hair, with clawed hands at each end. Kagura was forced to the ground on her back with the thing straddling her. Two of its hands held down her arms and two of the others gripped her neck.

She stared up at a face that was human but not human. The mouth was a set of slobbering pinchers, the nose two slits in the center of its face, and the eyes two clusters where Kagura could see multiple reflections of her own gaping face.

She clawed at the hands around her throat with feeble resistance. Her nose was full of the scent of rotting fruit and ash. She would have begged for release, if she could have spoken at all.

How can such a world exist? Were there no gods? Were there no saints or angels or spirits, charged with justice?

"Get off of her!" she heard Shippou shouting.

The world began to fade to a dark field with yellow halos. Then she heard a new sound that she did not understand. It was a loud screech, a metallic cry that rang out over the forest and echoed in the valley.

Then her attacker was gone. It was pulled away with sudden and violent force. She sat up, covering her throat, gasping and looking around for the next attack.

She heard another scream. This one came from a different throat than the first and was a scream of agonized death, cut off in a fading gurgle.

Kagura looked up and saw an enormous raptor, larger than a house, gliding close to the ground and covering everything with his shadow. She stared, dumbfounded and wide-eyed, and she saw the body of her assailant impaled on his claws. A greenish blood bubbled forth from its mouth and its wounds and dropped on the sparse grass in large puddles. As he flew past, the bird cocked his head to the side to look at her, and let out another shrill cry. This was the source of the first scream she had heard. When she saw the green eyes peering down at her, she trembled.

_Son of a bitch,_ she thought, _it's Shippou!_

_Last night I dreamt I went to the Hyouden again._

Higurashi awoke to find these words written on her bedroom mirror in red lipstick. She stared at the message for a long time. At first, she could not even understand it as a sentence, and then she wondered who had written it. It did not look like her handwriting, but then again, maybe…

Did she dream last night? She supposed she had, but she did not remember, and 'the Hyouden' meant nothing to her. She took a wad of tissue from the nightstand and began wiping away the cryptic letters. There was a knock on her bedroom door. Higurashi hurriedly erased the rest of the marks before answering.

"Come in."

Yuka entered the room.

"Souta asked me to check on you. It's almost ten o'clock."

Higurashi turned to her bedside clock in surprise.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I didn't realize. I must not have slept well."

Yuka came to her side and placed the cool back of her hand against Higurashi's forehead. Higurashi was surprised but said nothing.

"You are warm," the young woman said. "Are you feeling okay?"

Higurashi was about to answer that she felt fine (which was what she always said to such questions without thinking) when she noticed that the color had drained from Yuka's face. The girl was shifting her frightened eyes from the mirror to the room and back again. Higurashi feared that she had left an unnoticed message still on the glass. When she turned to look at the glass she recoiled, and had to grip Yuka's arm to keep from falling.

"Higurashi-san," Yuka cried in a strangled whisper. "What's going on? What is this?"

The mirror did not reflect the room. Higurashi also looked back and forth, just to be sure, but there could be no mistake. Her dresser, nightstand, and four-poster bed were not there. According to the mirror's reflection, the mirror was sitting on a floor, leaning slightly. The room was large, and mostly unfurnished, except for a small bed on the floor in the corner. The architecture was grand, but ancient, set with dark, wooden beams and grey stone. The window looked out at a night sky.

"Higurashi-san!" Yuka was pale and shaking.

"Hush, Yuka-chan," Higurashi whispered. "Hush!"

They stood and watched, transfixed, as a pair of feet glided across the floor of the other room, appearing to walk across Higurashi's dresser. Yuka dreaded the revelation of a specter and she begged her eyes to look away, but she was frozen like a cornered mouse.

_Please. Please don't._

The person in the mirror-world walked away, toward the bed. Higurashi's nails dug into Yuka's arm.

"Kagome!" she sobbed, staring at the mirage with a pathetic fervor.

Yuka saw indeed that Kagome was lying down on the bed. She sat up on her elbows and looked at the mirror. Higurashi and Yuka, desperate and hungry and horrified, did not look away from that wistful expression. Kagome gave no indication that she saw them. She blew out the candle, and the mirror went black.

The hawk veered away and cast the mangled body of the monster into the trees. The green-black blood sprayed the striped bark of the maple trees and the puny white blooms of anemones. The corpse fell to the ground in pieces. He circled back and flew over Kagura again. She heard Shippou's normal voice call out to her.

"Kagura! What are you doing? Run!"

_How does he do that?_

She did not have the chance to wonder at it for long. Behind her she heard the sound of many of feet crashing through the forest, cracking trigs and trampling dead leaves. Then, from the cover of the trees, emerged a swarm of the same monster, too many to count. Kagura was on her feet and running the next instant.

She cursed her uselessness. Would she ever get her powers back?

She heard cries and screams behind her, some coming from the monsters, some from the giant bird that harassed them from the air. Kagura wanted to see what was happening, but she did not dare stop running. Her throat still burned with the marks of claws.

She was running and thinking so hard that she did not notice the end of the trees until she broke out of them and into the blazing sunlight. She fell to her knees, saving herself at the last minute from running off a high ledge that overlooked a rocky gorge.

_Damn this rugged country!_

She stood and turned to go back, but stopped when she heard the chittering glamour of the monsters coming through the trees like an army of enormous beetles.

Did this mean they had killed Shippou?

Kagura surprised herself in that moment. She resolved that, if that were the case, she would turn and cast herself onto the rocks.

She was coming to the conclusion that she would have no choice but to do just that, when she heard the shrill cry of the hawk again. She looked up in time to see him getting close to her. In the next instant she was dangling in the air, looking down at the land getting smaller beneath her feet.

"I got you!" he shouted.

Kagura could see the dark, swarming mass of the monsters on the edge of the cliff. She watched in horror as they cascaded down the sides, using all their limbs to scale the steep incline.

_Like spiders,_ she thought, and suppressed a gag.

It did not matter, however, because they would not be able to catch up with Shippou. The cliff had faded into the distance by the time they began to descend. She saw a mound in the forest, rising out from the trees like a bald head, and then she was dropped upon the grass. Shippou transformed back into his normal self and was beside her before she had even stood up again.

His eyes were wild and angry. His red hair had come loose in the wind and it billowed about his face in a tangled mess.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

Kagura, stunned by the morning's events and staggered by this unexpected display, could only nod. She stared at him, not knowing what to say or do and fighting a dozen impulses at once.

_I will follow you. Wherever you go, take me with you._

"Kagura, do you know what those creatures were?"

The question broke her delirium and confused her.

"No. Why would I?"

"Well," Shippou chewed his lip. "They were spiders, or like spiders, and that smell…"

_Ash and decay._

Kagura admitted to herself that she had tried to ignore it, to repress it, but it was all vanity.

"They smelled like Naraku," she declared out in the open, under the bare witness of the noon sun.

Shippou nodded. He sat down on the grass and hung his head between his knees. Kagura realized that he must have been exhausted. She sat down and put her back against his.

In this ruined country brooding with unknown threats, they let the October sun beat down on their heads. Sleep came like a drug released by their aching limbs and thundering hearts.

The house was turned upside down. There was no calming Yuka or Higurashi. They could not be reached across their terror. It took Souta almost an hour to extract from them a complete account so that he could fully understand what had happened that morning.

Never did he more regret that Yuka was living there. He thought there was some chance that he could convince his mother that the vision meant nothing, was a solitary and isolated result of stress or insomnia. He might even convince her that it was good sign, that Kagome was at least alive.

There was nothing he could say to mollify Yuka. She had no experience to allow her to accept the supernatural or magical. He could not very well explain to her that she had probably only seen his sister going about her usual business in the feudal era.

The only thing he could bring himself to say to them both was a ridiculous statement: "That mirror is very old."

Yuka was in the courtyard, pacing. She had not returned to the house since she had run screaming from his mother's room.

His mother, on the other hand, had something to cling to, something to help her react to the phenomenon more decisively. She was rummaging through her books with a renewed desperation bordering on hysteria, hoping to find a passage that would explain to her what she had seen and why she had seen it.

Souta thought of his grandfather. The old man had become…remote, to say the least, but he still had moments, many moments in fact, of lucidity. If Souta found him in such a state today, perhaps he would know what to do.

He left the kitchen and went down the hall in the direction of his grandfather's suite. As he reached for the door, he was startled to see the air change, as if the time of day had made a sudden jump. He heard strange sounds that were not there before. There was music from a radio—

_Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to_

_Strawberry Fields  
Nothing is real_

—the singing of birds, and laughter. He turned and saw Kagome standing before him.

She was wearing a pink sundress, with red strawberries printed on it, and a white hat, which she clutched as she ran down the hall laughing. She ran past him and he saw that his mother was there, waiting with her arms out.

This was not happening…it had already happened. He had leapt back over ten years of small victories and twisted disappointments. He found himself turning and heading back toward the kitchen. He realized he was shorter, and everything seemed bigger and newer. His mother was speaking to Kagome. She pushed aside her hair, which was so much longer than he knew it to be now.

"If you go to the ice cream parlor with your friends, you should take Souta. Just this once, Kagome, please?"

"Ah! But…momma!" Kagome's eyes, eyes that had never seen demons or lonely love, were wide and her expression betrayed her disappointment.

"Now Kagome," their mother chided her gently. "Be nice, you'll regret it later if you don't."

"Hmm." Kagome looked down at Souta.

Souta found that he was looking up at her younger face and tugging on her dress.

He remembered this! He wasn't just thinking about it, he was there; his fourteen-year-old self was housed in his four-year-old head.

The light faded and his vision blurred. He saw the world shrinking again.

_No, wait!_ he managed to think, but it was gone. He was standing at the door to his grandfather's bedroom, holding the knob.

He stopped and leaned forward, resting his head on his arm. He shivered from a cold sweat.

"She is dead," he moaned to himself.

"She is dead?"

He turned and saw Yuka standing where his vision of Kagome had been. Oddly enough, she was wearing a pink dress. There was no hat or strawberries however.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Souta pretended to not know what she meant.

Yuka stalked toward him and faced him with her red and haunted eyes flashing and her nostrils flaring.

"You're not a child anymore," she said. "Don't fuck with me. Where is Kagome? Is she dead? Where is her body? Did _you_ do it?"

Souta did something then that he had never done before, and that he would always regret and relive with shame, even when he was an old man. He hit her.

The blow was not great, just the flat of his hand striking her lip, but Yuka stumbled back, her hand clamped over her mouth. When she drew it away her palm bore a small blot of blood.

Already terrified, stunned, and ashamed, Souta expected her to be frightened and dismayed and full of disbelief, as he thought all abused women were. Instead, she looked at him with eyes full of accusation and contempt. Souta lost his nerve and shrank from her.

She turned and left without another word. Souta felt the urge to sit in the hall and cry, but then he remembered why he was there. His mother needed him. That came first. He must be strong.

He opened the door and peeked in.

"Jii-san?" he called.

There was no answer. He thought to leave and check the souvenir shop, but then remembered that it was closed for the day. Souta pushed open the door and heard it squeak. He went into the dim room that smelled of medicine, dust, and plastic.

"Jii-san?"

He heard water running, and concluded that his grandfather was drawing a bath. He rapped his knuckles on the bathroom door.

"Jii-san? I need to talk to you."

Still no answer.

"Jii-san? Are you okay?"

When there was still no response, Souta decided to open the door anyway. As he reached for the knob, an unexpected sensation made him jump. Cold water was seeping out from under the door and had already soaked his socks.

Naraku watched the bloom of his latest creation spread before his feet, and reflected to himself that he was never satisfied.

It was not in his nature to be introspective, but he was bored.

As bored as anyone could be, who satisfied his hunger with prodigious hatred and slaked his thirst on unrelenting envy.

The floor before him crawled with life, with the turbulent tenacity of an ant colony.

Maybe "life" was not the right word.

Naraku was certain of two things: Kagome and Kikyou. He knew that these individuals still lived. He was almost certain that Kagura and Kohaku also still lived, since he had felt them being torn from him, but there was no telling what had happened to them after that. Given all that had happened, they could be dead by now anyway, but he hoped not. He really, _really_ wanted to kill Kagura himself.

But he felt Kagome and Kikyou. He even knew, more or less, how far away they were and that they were, for the moment, stationary.

Throughout the rains, Naraku had hid himself and healed from the explosion on the plateau. He was still not sure what had happened. He was going to kill them, he could still feel the slick coolness of Kagome's throat, there had been no fear. He remembered triumphing over Kagura. Then his flesh was invaded, he knew not how. He felt a fire begin and grow in his rib cage. His heart shuddered. He tried to leave.

That was the last thing he remembered of the plateau. He was thrown away, his body gone. He was trying to understand what had happened when he realized his awareness had been removed and relocated. He saw before him a multitude of swimming stars and he felt his mind stretching, spreading over an impossibly vast space. It was going to break.

Then he was standing by a river, black under a clouded night sky. He saw Kagome's body lying in a lifeless lump on the opposite bank and he gloated over her death.

Above her body he noticed a shape take form and solidify, and he realized with a tiny twinge of fear that it was a tiger.

No, it was a dog—a colossal, silver dog. It looked at him and then licked a front paw. He saw that it was cleansing away blood and thought that it was Kagome's blood.

A foreign, alien voice residing in his head informed him with mild interest, "No, it's yours."

The beast was upon him. He saw the moon come through the tattered clouds and reside in its liquid black eyes. He felt his heart break in its jaws.

He awoke in his castle, with no recollection how he had gotten there. It was more empty than usual, because nothing remained there now but Kanna.

She was standing beside him like a short, marble statue. When she saw him stir, she came to life and she said:

"You're awake."

"How did I get here?" he asked her.

"You returned."

"How long have I slept?"

"I do not know the passage of time, but it was a long time. The summer has gone."

Naraku checked his chest. There was no wound, not from Kagome or from the dog.

_Was that real?_

He perceived the absence of Kagura's heart, and he roared with rage. Kanna stepped away from him.

They would pay! They would see if he would be robbed, attacked, and wounded. They think they're so mighty and clever!

He told Kanna to leave and she left, and he then proceeded to destroy the castle. He smashed in the roof and tore down the walls. He shaped and reshaped his body in a dozen different forms so that he could grasp, claw, and rend. He razed the entire area to the ground and pushed the debris into the swollen river, damming it.

It was one of the most spectacular temper tantrums in history, even if no one was around to see it.

Once his mind was clearer, Naraku began to tick away all the injustices done to him, and to count the slights and outrages that he must repay. He considered the ways in which he was to proceed. After some time passed and the dust had settled, he called Kanna to him again.

"Go forth," he said to her, "and find them. Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kohaku, Kagura, Sesshoumaru, and Kouga. And that little fox demon. Find out if they still live, and where they are and what they are doing, and come back to report. Do not let them see you."

"What about Kikyou, and Kagome?" Kanna asked him.

Naraku gnashed his teeth. "Just do as I say."

Naraku was nothing if not calculating. He reckoned the risks, gauged the gains, and never faltered in his faith in his own estimations, no matter how many times he was proven wrong.

So it is little wonder that he could bring himself to break the Jewel again.

There were two pieces now (in addition to the three shards that still eluded him). One, the slightly larger one, he kept for himself. The other he had given to Botsuraku. Weakened by the Plateau, Naraku had spawned Botsuraku out of his rancor, fed him with his unbridled wrath, and raised him to quick adulthood on his implacable hatred. He had poured into him much of his strength and almost all of his hope.

Botsuraku was reliable and obedient because he did not have much in the way of imagination. He stored information like a book with no interest in what it contained.

Naraku had reached the conclusion that imagination among his minions tended to translate into betrayal.

Why was that anyway?

"Go to the village of Edo," Naraku had ordered him. "Find all you can about the miko Kagome and where she comes from. If you find her or her kin, bring them to me alive. This jewel will help you; let no one else handle it."

So Kanna and Botsuraku were gone, and Naraku was left alone to preside over his next venture, spread before him in an interminable, writhing carpet. Naraku concentrated his will into a small space in his center, and his form melted into an unremarkable human—pale, cold, and beautiful.

"The time has come to release them of their delusions!"

They awoke in the mid-afternoon and the sun was much lower in the sky. Shippou stirred first and disturbed Kagura's sleep. They both stood and stretched their sore and stiff limbs.

"It was not safe for us to sleep out in the open like that, but I was so tired."

"You got us far enough away from them, I think," Kagura told him.

Shippou looked around. "Yeah, but still…"

"I wish I hadn't carried us in the opposite direction of the Hyouden," he fretted.

"There's no help for that now."

Shippou was silent for a moment, while he kicked the turf with his foot. Kagura sat back down and started to toy with clovers and grass blades.

"I guess it doesn't matter anyway," he shrugged.

"Oh?" Kagura looked up. "Are we not going there anymore?"

"Oh, we will, eventually. But, right now, we need to figure out something about your powers."

Kagura looked down again. After a long silence, she spoke.

"I know. But what is there to do? I've tried a few times, to fly or to…do something, but…"

"I know someone who may be able to help. Do you know Totosai?"

Kagura started. "I haven't thought of him in years. He made Tokijin, right?"

"And Tenseiga and Tessaiga. If anyone can help you, Totosai can. Or he knows someone who can."

"Do you know where he lives?"

Shippou sighed. "No, not really. I haven't seen him in a long time either, and it's likely we wouldn't find him in the same place anyway."

He looked around at the bleak landscape. Shadows lengthened across the land.

"Everyone seems to be so scattered," he murmured.

Kagura wished she could at least contribute ideas to this outfit, but her mind offered her up nothing.

"We'll just have to make it up as we go along," he said.

"Umm…okay." Kagura did not think much of this idea, but as she could think of little to improve it, she merely shrugged.

A strange breeze lifted Kagura's hair and she look up to see the hawk had returned, his talons plowing the earth. She stood up.

"Are you leaving then? I cannot fly."

Kagura thought she had managed to sound indifferent, but instead her tone was tragic and her voice almost broken. Shippou pretended not to hear.

"Don't be stupid," his young voice came from the raptor. "Climb on."

Kagura stared at him.

"Well?" he clicked his beak at her with impatience. "What the hell are you waiting for?"

"Are you insane?"

"I am not going to wander around in these hills for the next century looking for that old coot. If you don't climb up on your own I'll pick you up by your feet. You won't like it."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Who do you think you're talking to?"

Kagura stood, conflicted for a moment, doubting and considering, until at last she swore under her breath and, using care not to pull out feathers, climbed onto the bird's back. He gave her only a moment to adjust and settle before he flapped his wings in a hurricane and was off.

Kagura gasped and clung harder to his shoulders.

"Don't pinch!" he cried once they were coasting above the mountains. "You'd think you'd be used to flying."

"I knew back then that I wouldn't fall," Kagura complained.

"I won't let you fall, nincompoop."

"What did you call me?"

Shippou laughed.

Souta sat in his grandfather's ruined bedchamber and decided he did not believe in any kind of god. There were no prophecies; his mother was wrong. Prophecy implied destiny, and that was a lie.

Some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any method in it. The world was exactly what one would expect if there was no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.

He had finally been forced to break down the bathroom door, and thus he found his grandfather, an ashen and shriveled doll, floating face down in the tub.

That was hours ago, and men in uniforms had come and gone, carrying away his earthly remains. His mother had gone with them, with her tissues in hand, to see to the final arrangements. She had wanted him to accompany her, but he refused. He did not want to be any part of it and never wanted to see that version of his grandfather again. He hoped that the next time he saw him he would be just grey ashes and white smoke.

Yuka had charitably gone with Higurashi instead. She had not once even looked at Souta.

He sat in the faint light of evening. Only a few rays of the sinking sun made it though the slats of the blinds and onto the soaked carpet.

How did it come to this?

_How did I become this?_

He stood up and left, his sneakers squishing on the floor.

Souta left the room, walked down the hall, through the living room, out the side door, across the shrine courtyard, down the long steps, and out into the street. He began to walk faster.

Kagome was probably not coming back.

He walked faster.

They had always known it was dangerous.

He walked faster.

Too dangerous.

He walked still faster.

Kagome was not coming back.

He began to run. He ran down the sidewalk, dodging pedestrians and cyclists who jumped to the side and stared after him in amazement. He ran past the neon lights just beginning to glow in the dusk. He ran past the shops and delis where he had followed Kagome like a puppy, all those years ago. Visions of himself eating ice cream, begging for penny candy, of Kagome in her sunhat, of red strawberries printed on pink fabric, blurred past him.

He would keep running. He would find a street fair and eat cotton candy and peach ice cream until he was sick. He would find friends who still wanted to play games in the street. He would sneak into a movie. He would spend all day in an arcade.

He would stop by Kagome's school and make sure she had everything she needed.

_Kagome doesn't go to school anymore._

Souta ran faster.

His feet began to feel like lead weights, but he refused to notice.

He would run to this past notion of himself and embrace it, so that then…so then…

Everything else would go back too.

He collapsed. It was sheer luck that he did not land on the sidewalk or the street. He had arrived at a small community park. He lay sprawled on the grass, panting and near vomiting. He heard people nearby express surprise and concern, but they were all illusions to him.

_No. It's not coming back. It's never coming back again._

_How awful! The way time passes!_

Souta panted and pawed at the grass, trying not to throw up.

_What did you expect?_ Kagome's voice asked him from the throne in his head. _You're still alive, aren't you?_

He lay there until he could look up and see the weak reddish light of one star, struggling to overcome the city lights.

_You can't get here fast enough._

Shippou's muscles were screaming after less than two hours, and he cursed his weakness. He was about to tell Kagura to prepare herself for landing when he saw a strange shape in the northern sky. It was dark and elongated and seemed to be growing larger. It was moving in their direction. At first, he feared it was a dragon or a demon of some other kind. After a few nervous minutes, however, his heart lightened for the first time in months.

"Hachi!" he cried.

"What?" Kagura was startled. He had not spoken for the last hour.

"Hachi!" he answered. "He's a friend of Miroku's."

Kagura looked around and found the shape coming toward them from the north. It looked almost like a gigantic, flying leaf.

"Hachi!" Shippou called out to the shape. "Come this way and land!"

"Shippou," Kagura whispered to him. "Are you sure?"

But he did not answer. She was surrounded by the hurricane again for a moment, then he became still, and she slid off his back to the ground. By this time, Hachi had landed and transformed into the normal semblance of a raccoon demon. He was taller than Shippou, though not by much, and his dark eyes were wide and darting about. He frequently stroked his long, canine-like nose in a nervous gesture.

When he saw the hawk transform into the kitsune Shippou, he was all amazement.

"Well I'll be," he exclaimed. "What's all this now?"

"It's a long story, Hachi," Shippou greeted him with a short bow. "I hope you're doing well?"

Hachi's paw ran down his nose a couple of times.

"Well, not so well as I would wish," he said mournfully. "But you? Where are the others? Where is Miroku-sama?"

Shippou restrained his tears and clenched his jaws.

"I don't know."

"What?" Hachi exclaimed. "What happened?"

Shippou realized then that he had not talked about the Plateau since that terrible day; he had not even thought about it (if he could help it). He braced himself and began explaining to Hachi the events of the day the short summer ended. Hachi listened with an expression of growing distress.

"Oh, this is terrible!" he wailed. "My master! What has become of him?"

"Who is your master?" Kagura broke in, unable to contain her curiosity.

Hachi looked at her with doubt.

"Oh, she's alright," Shippou explained. "She's with me now."

Kagura chose not to reflect upon that rather offhand description of her salvation.

"Miroku-sama is my lord," Hachi told her.

Kagura was surprised by this, but could not question him further because he once again fell to pieces. He lamented in a loud wail and tore at the fur on his head.

"Stop that!" Shippou barked at him. "Enough of this Hachi, Miroku would be ashamed."

That brought the raccoon demon up short; he gulped down the rest of his tears.

"He may be alive. I don't know," Shippou laid a hand on the raccoon demon's shoulder. "We must have hope."

"Then I must go look for him!"

Shippou considered that. "Yes, I suppose that would be the right thing for you to do."

"But before you go," he continued. "I need your help. We're looking for Totosai, the demon sword smith. Do you know where we could find him?"

Hachi looked up, eyes widening again.

"What luck!" he exclaimed. "I saw Totosai less than half a moon ago!"

Relief flooded Shippou and almost made his knees weak. In spite of his confident air, he had not really believed that they would find Totosai anytime soon.

Hachi explained that he had come across the old demon living on an island to the north. It had been nothing but a knoll, but the rains had flooded the valley around it. He pointed them in the general direction and gave them descriptions of landmarks to look for.

"I don't know if he'll still be there though," he fretted. "The land is always changing these days and…even worse things…"

He voice trailed off and his eyes filled with sick dread.

"Hachi?" Shippou looked at him closely. "What's the matter?"

Hachi looked around as if expecting a spy to appear from behind the bushes.

"Have you heard of the Tsuchigumo?" he asked in a whisper.

"Tsuchigumo?" Shippou tried out the strange word. "No, I don't think so."

"They're new demons. No one knows where they came from. They're almost human looking, but they're spiders."

"Oh, you mean those," Shippou waved his hand. "Yeah, we've already fought some of those off. They're weak enough."

"But they are so many!" Hachi cried. "What you've seen here is only the fringe. To the north they cover the land like locusts!"

Shippou's heart sank.

"And then, there's the _movement,_" Hachi said the word with loathing and contempt.

"And just what is that then?" Shippou asked, beginning to feel overwhelmed.

"They're just humans, I think, but they blame the rains on the priesthood—monks, priests, and priestesses. Some have been driven from villages…and those were the lucky ones."

"That's outrageous!" Shippou cried.

Hachi nodded. "That's what I was doing when you spotted me. I was trying to find you guys to warn Miroku-sama, and Kagome-sama, that they may be in danger."

"Thank you Hachi," Shippou took his hands, "you've been very helpful. Go and look for your master. If you find him, or any of my friends, before I do, look after them for me, will you?"

Hachi looked at him in surprise.

"You're still going to look for Totosai? You'll have to go through a hornet's nest to get to him, you know. Why not come with me?"

"I think we have to do this. You'll just have to trust me."

He did not have the nerve to confide in Hachi that he believed Naraku still alive and well, that he would almost certainly come after Kagura soon, and that he, Shippou, was not yet strong enough to protect her. Increasing Kagura's ability to defend herself was an absolute imperative.

Hachi would not even stay with them that night. He shared some food that he had pilfered from some abandoned storehouse somewhere. Shippou almost refused on the grounds that they did not really need it, but thought better of it. He thanked Hachi again and bid him to be careful. The raccoon demon took to the sky again and sped away to the south, seeking the Plateau.

Shippou and Kagura hid themselves in a deep glen shaded with thick underbrush. They did not sleep however, but sat all night with their backs together, straining their ears to listen to the sounds of anger and despair, growing up around them like a tempest.

[End of Chapter Eighteen]

[Next Chapter: Running up that Hill]

**Author's Notes:** Time for some explanations.

I try very hard to use canon material or to draw on Japanese history and folklore. The only original character of any significance so far is Tamotsu. Botan and Momiji are the red and white priestesses (from anime only). I'm sure most people remember Nobunaga. Taroumaru, from the end of the last chapter, was the son of the headman from the whole incident with the evil water god.

It should not be supposed that Sesshoumaru and Jaken are imagining that objects in their house are playing pranks on them because they're crazy or going crazy (although they probably are going a little bit crazy, especially Sesshoumaru). The Tsukumogami are objects that are "alive and aware", something they gain after reaching their 100th birthday. At this point, they're a type of youkai. Some common items, like sandals, jars, and scrolls, have their own, specific name. The mirror for example, which we see in this chapter, is the ungaikyo.

Tsuchigumo means "ground spider". There were once a people in ancient Japan known by this name, probably due to some mythical and exaggerated accounts of battles with them. The term appears also in legends of spider monsters, some in the form of beautiful women who trap travelers and such. My Tsuchigumo are nothing like that of course, but that's where the name comes from.


	19. Running Up That Hill

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Nineteen: Running up that Hill**

"_If I only could, I'd make a deal with God,_

_And I'd get him to swap our places._

_I'd be running up that hill, running up that road,_

_With no problems." – Kate Bush_

Blame had become the center of Inuyasha's life. When he was not smothering his thoughts with the thick blanket of manual labor, blame was everywhere and blame was everything. His ragged soul was an empire of regret, with Blame as the prime minister.

There was blame for the Plateau, blame for the rains, blame for the loss of his friends, blame for the passage of time. Blame, blame, blame.

Some he cast at the feet of his enemies, some was put aside special for Fate and Destiny, but most he kept for himself, near to his razed heart.

The night after he met Nobunaga, Inuyasha returned to the house by the woods.

It was dark, of course. It was always dark. The first visit, right after the Plateau and the beginning of the rains, was to a time of dancing and music, but in every dream after that he came to a house that was a sad and empty shell. He squared his shoulders and made ready to go in to visit his brother's funeral bier with its bellflowers, only to find that this time he was frozen in place a short distance from the threshold. He heard the gentle lulling of the sea behind him and tasted its splash of salt in the air. An icy fear seized his heart at the notion that, unable to go in to complete the theater, he would be trapped in this dark and creepy place forever.

_I must go in, _he thought to himself, _or I'll never wake up._

An unexpected, alien voice responded.

"Some are not so lucky. Some will never wake up."

Inuyasha's guts twisted in cold knots. This statement seemed only to confirm his fear.

Isn't that what death was, anyway? Never waking up? Did you dream in death? What if you were conscious and aware, but trapped there in a rotting, leather sack, and driven insane?

Surely not, but…

He pushed the thought away. It pretended to go.

Inuyasha struggled against the force keeping him out of the house. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and evaporated in the chill, autumn night. The resistance began to give way and he felt a surge of triumph as he moved a tiny bit forward.

He stopped. The house had _breathed_ on him. It exhaled a gust of stale, frosty air. He stood still, trying to place the memory, until he realized it was similar to that box Kagome's mother had, the large and gleaming box where they kept all the food. It was as if someone had opened the door of it and then snapped it shut again in his face.

He needed to leave. Even if it meant running straight off the cliff behind him and plunging into the sea, he had to get out of here. Something was in that house. He understood now that he had always been aware of it; he knew it had been there along, waiting during every dream for the right time to reveal itself. Maybe, in previous dreams, it had waited in the corner, watching with glowing eyes while he went through the ritual of seeing his brother and then going to the window to look at the red star. Maybe now it had eaten his brother's corpse.

_Dear mother,_ he thought in a growing panic, _don't let it get me!_

The front door snapped opened.

From the black maw of the abandoned house a grayish figure emerged. It was human, but not so. He could not quite tell because it was covered from head to toe with little bits of gauzy paper. Inuyasha saw blots of black and red stains everywhere, and he realized that it was wrapped in funeral papers and was bleeding through them.

_They've been declared dead, but they're not._

_What if death drives us insane?_

It moved with terrifying speed across the front stoop and over the sparse grass. It rushed toward him with outstretched arms, emitting a shrill wail filled with hatred and despair. He was never going to be able to move. He was never leaving that spot again. He waited for those arms to wrap around him, to smother his senses with the rotting scent of death and to condemn his mind to gibbering terror forever.

He awoke on his hands and knees, crying, blubbering and tearing at the grass. He heard his voice, raw and stricken, but too late to catch what was said. How long had he been crawling around in the dark like a crazy person? There was no way to know. He crawled to the nearest tree and leaned against it, panting and staring into the dark, straining his eyes to see the calm forest and _not_ to see the house or the paper monster. It occurred to him that sleeping in the tree would be safer, and that the familiarity of it would comfort him. Once introduced, this notion would not be denied. He climbed about halfway up the dark, stringy trunk of a jezo tree.

Inuyasha settled himself in the bows of the tree and continued to stare into the dark, wondering if dreams meant anything or nothing. He had never before given much thought to them, but repetitive dreams were always unsettling; they implied that one's mind was obsessively digging at something that might be better left buried.

Was his brother dead? Was that what this was about it? If so, why should he care? What had that to do with him? No, if this meant anything, it meant something of weight to him.

Was the paper monster Kagome? If she were dead, she would be…

…rotting by now…

He pushed that thought away as well. If it were Kagome, why would she, why would his Kagome, ever want to hurt him?

Even though he was awake, the chill alien voice responded.

_Because she blames you, stupid. Why wouldn't she?_

He stared at the dark until his eyes burned. Unknowing, he fell asleep again.

Inuyasha awoke to the pleasant sounds and smells of fish sizzling over a fire. He popped open one eye, then the other. The sky was a steely gray with a tint of purple, but the air was still chilled, and his breath turned to steam under his nose.

Inuyasha scratched his ears and stretched his back, then looked down from his sleeping place.

He almost fell out of the tree when he spotted Nobunaga, sitting under the tree and turning fish over a crackling fire, humming to himself.

"Hey!" Inuyasha called out.

He leapt down from his perch and landed on all fours in front of Nobunaga's fire.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Good morning, Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga smiled. "Fish?"

Inuyasha stared at him.

"Are you sure?" Nobunaga waved a stick of smoking fish at him. "You're not hungry?"

"Look," Inuyasha eyed him suspiciously, "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you can't travel with me. I move too fast for you."

"Yes, yes, of course," Nobunaga shrugged. "I only happened upon you this morning, is all."

"Oh really?"

"Yep. Fish?"

"Fine, give me the damn fish!"

While Inuyasha gulped down the fish, Nobunaga began questioning him.

"Where are you headed from here?"

"What's it to you?"

Nobunaga shrugged again.

"Nothing. Just curious. Passing the time."

"My goal is to get back to Edo," Inuyasha said, "so I have to head east and north."

"Ah. That is a long way from here."

"Not for me."

Inuyasha finished his meal and stood up.

"Thanks for the fish," he said. "But you should be less charitable to people you meet on the road. Times are hard."

"Aren't you the one stopping to help every person with a sad story?" Nobunaga asked.

"Yeah, but I can afford it. You, on the other hand, that's a different story."

"You know," Nobunaga said in an even tone. "I'm not the same kid you met over five years ago."

"Maybe so. But you're still human."

"You're half-human."

"I am aware of that!" Inuyasha snapped.

Nobunaga was silent. Inuyasha sighed.

"Look, I'm not going to stand out here debating with you 'til I rust from the dew. If you think you can keep up, go ahead and try it. You'll be choking on my dust."

He turned and walked away.

"Later, Nobunaga. Good luck."

Inuyasha made good time that day, traveling at a consistent speed and in the right direction without stopping. He did not pass any humans or human settlements. He estimated that, if he continued to travel at this rate uninterrupted, he would make it to Edo before the following noon. He was already leaving the mountains and had descended into the gentle foothills near the eastern coast.

The sun was setting when he came to a swollen river that cut through a mountain gorge. He paused for only a moment to watch the water glow in the reddening light. He peered closer, thinking perhaps the light was playing tricks on his eyes. It looked as though the river ran red with blood.

As he stood there he heard a scream carried by the wind from a cliff across the way. His sharp eyes could see a woman struggling to escape a dark figure, and he knew in an instant that it was some kind of demon. He caught the scent of rotting fruit and ash.

Inuyasha was there in moments. He cut down the figure without hesitation. It did not even have the chance to cry out, but fell off the cliff and into the chasm below with a deep gash in its back that frothed with green-black blood. The woman lost her balance and came close to following her assailant, when Inuyasha caught her at the last moment. He carried her away and down to the river banks.

Her breathing was shallow and ragged, and she clung to him in sheer terror, but when she looked up and saw his ears she gave a cry of new alarm.

"Demon!" she screamed in hysterics, and brought one bony fist down on his left ear.

"Ow!" Inuyasha shouted. "Damnit!"

He let go of her and she landed with a splash, and a small cry, in the river's shallows.

"Damnit!" he said again, glaring down at her. "I can't believe you hit me again, Nazuna!"

The woman looked up at him in amazement. She had grown, and a long kimono had replaced the short yukuta of a girl, but there could be no doubt it was the same girl he had rescued some years ago. Her eyes, hard as obsidian, had not changed. Inuyasha swallowed his bitterness.

_You're getting this wrong_, he thought, _Kagome was with me when I did this._

The alien voice did not answer.

Now the young woman recognized him. She stared up from the murky water, twigs and leaves in her hair and mud splattered on her face.

"Inuyasha!"

"Yeah, it's me."

He was gracious enough to help her get to her feet.

"What's the deal?"

She stared at him.

"Why are you out here alone?" he clarified.

"I am alone," she answered simply.

"What? No one? What about your temple?"

Nazuna laughed, a sound devoid of humor. "I was never a shrine-maiden."

She lifted her kimono a bit out of the water.

"Do you mind?" she asked him, indicating the bank with a glance. "A murky river is hardly the place for a chat about the good old days."

Inuyasha followed her to the dry ground. She squeezed the excess water from her hair.

"As I was saying—

She was interrupted by shouting. Inuyasha looked up and was thunderstruck to see Nobunaga running toward them, panting and red in the face.

"Hey! Hey! Are you alright?"

Inuyasha gaped at him, then threw his hands up in disgust.

Kikyou immersed herself in her new role as nursemaid to the Hyouden. The human miko went about her day with diligence and dignity, all under the gaze of ancient tapestries and silent statues. She gave no thought to the history and the luxuries hinted at by the rooms now used only to gather dust, by the cases of moth-ravaged clothes and crumbling manuscripts. She did not pause to reflect that it all been built, maybe indifferently, maybe lovingly, by some demon or other in the dim past.

The truth was that in those early days of nursing, mending, cooking, and scrubbing, Kikyou did not think of much of anything at all.

Kagome, for her part, was rarely awake and _not_ thinking of her onetime rival. The mystery and miracle of her rebirth was always in the back of her mind. She wanted to question her further, but she did not know how, and Kikyou only came to her when it was necessary to feed her, change her bandages, or to help her bathe.

She also did not see Kohaku or Rin except for a few, fleeting moments, and she had not once seen Sesshoumaru or Jaken. On one occasion, she asked Kikyou how the others in the household spent their days.

"Kohaku-san hunts for our food," the other miko answered. "But as for the rest, I'm sure I don't know. The master and his servant have had nothing to say to me, and that Rin person is as vaporous as a fog."

This was one of the longest sentences Kagome could get from Kikyou in those early weeks.

It was Tamotsu who offered Kagome any real company. The strange dog demon listened with endless fascination to her stories about the modern era. At first, she feared that she should say too much, but it did not take long for her need of companionship to override any scruples in that area.

And Kagome did love to talk, especially about herself.

Day after day, Tamotsu sat beside her bed, listening, questioning, probing. Kagome found that he was more astute than his lazy, shabby appearance had led her to believe. He had a gift for picking the right questions that would lead her to the truth, even if she had preferred to leave it alone.

"Where were you going that day?" he asked once.

"We were tracking Naraku," she answered without hesitation.

"Did you do that often?"

"Always."

"For how long?"

Kagome thought about it.

"I guess it's been about five years, or so."

"So as long as Sesshoumaru has hated him…Naraku, I mean."

"Yes," she affirmed. "Naraku was Inuyasha's enemy first."

"Were you getting closer?"

Kagome opened her mouth to answer, then shut it again. After a pause, she said:

"No, not really."

"I see."

"I really don't want to talk about Naraku, Tamotsu-sama."

"I bet you don't."

She looked at him with a slight gleam in her eyes.

"What does that mean?"

"I know you won't like to hear it," he said. "But you have more in common with Sesshoumaru than you think."

Kagome did not know what to say to that, so she said nothing. But he was right; she did not like hearing it.

One day, he came into her room with a wooden case from which he pulled two bamboo pipes of different length. Their cut was irregular, and the end of each was flared. Kagome realized that they were flutes.

"Can you play?" he asked.

"No."

"That's no surprise. Usually only men do," he handed the shorter one to her.

"But you're a different kind of woman, so I figured it was okay."

He sat down and brought the second flute to his lips.

"Hold your fingers like this," he said, before emitting a long, low sound that echoed in the empty room like a whale song.

When she was left alone, Kagome often sang. Her voice, while not impressive, was clear and precise. She soon discovered that, the more she sang, the stronger she felt in her chest. Her lungs expanded and took in more air. Her voice grew louder, and in that house of indifferent sentinels, she did not bother to be shy. She drew upon all her memory and recreated dozens of songs she had heard in her life, from nursery rhymes to aching love songs she and her friends used to sing, using their hairbrushes as microphones.

These things were her only comfort.

So it was that sometimes a voice drifted down the hall and through the cold and dry house, and sometimes two flutes wove a stilted melody that one could hear in the gardens. This was a strange enough phenomenon to rouse the curiosity of Rin and to reel her in from her ethereal orbit. She spent more and more time in the sick room, listening to the music and clapping her hands and laughing with delight. For her, it was a marvelous new way to pass the time. For Tamotsu, it would always be remembered as one of the happiest periods of his life.

Even Kikyou began spending more time in that room, drawn by Kagome's strangeness and her own unconscious need to end her solitude. It was not long before she started bringing meals to the room, enough to nourish three human women and to tempt one indulgent dog demon. Soon, Rin was in the habit of carrying the tea, walking behind Kikyou and laughing and talking like a bubbling spring. Kikyou, taciturn as always, became used to her.

Only Kohaku, Sesshoumaru, and Jaken remained apart. Kohaku could still not bear to be in the same room with Rin and he avoided her at all costs. Sesshoumaru and Jaken saw nothing to be gained from such company.

Despite the three gloomy inmates, a gradual atmosphere of life and light overtook the house. It became a place of regular meals and orderly habits. Rin became a little less abstracted, Tamotsu a little more content, and Kagome a little stronger. And Kikyou…Kikyou became a little more real.

Kagome had been awake almost two months before she saw Sesshoumaru again. If it were not for the presence of Rin and for Tamotsu's unmistakable resemblance to him, she might have forgotten where she was.

Sesshoumaru had no interest in seeing her, or anybody else. Kikyou tactfully avoided him. Kohaku spent all day every day roaming the surrounding hills and forests, searching, trapping, killing, and skinning. As long as the situation was thus arranged, Sesshoumaru could comfortably ignore it. He had long since decided that he was only waiting for Naraku to arrive anyway.

Why should he, Sesshoumaru, prince of the West, traipse around the countryside after such a worthless individual? It was infinitely preferable that Naraku would be made to come to him. With so many of his enemies in one place, Sesshoumaru assumed that it was only a matter of time before the despicable half-breed would be stupid enough to walk right up to the front door and knock.

He spent most of his time standing on the north terrace, watching the lands dry and crack under the endless sun and barren winds. He was beginning to find comfort in the fact that he had nothing to worry about, that he had only to wait until Naraku arrived, dispatch him, and then go about his business. He would then either kill the humans or drive them out, whichever suited him—it did not matter.

On one November morning, he was musing on such matters and heading towards the stairs to ascend to his favorite spot, when he was arrested by an unexpected sight.

Kagome was sprawled across several steps, about halfway up the flight, with her head resting on her elbows. She was pale and trembling. When she saw him, her eyes widened a bit, but otherwise she did not react.

"You are in the way," he said.

She winced. She had hoped he would just step over her.

"I tried," she said, struggling to breathe enough to talk, "I tried to get down and back myself, but I can't. I'm…I'm stuck here."

He looked at her, but did not respond. He saw her eyes darken. If she was trying to hide her contempt, she was failing.

Seeing no sign that she was preparing to remove herself, he suppressed a sigh of annoyance and moved to step around or over her. He took only one step, however, before he felt ridiculous. He wondered what his father would say.

Then he wondered why such a stupid thought had occurred to him.

Kagome saw the flicker of annoyance cross his brow and she assumed he was annoyed at her invalidity. In truth, he was suffering the departure of his self-assured contentment.

Kagome's discomfort, meanwhile, was also increasing. She wished over and over again that he would leave.

_Can't you just fly over me?_ she thought with exasperation.

He moved closer to her and she braced herself lest he accidentally step on her.

_Excuse me, ma'am_, she imagined him saying. It was almost funny.

Then she was no longer on the steps. Her rib cage came down on something hard, which she soon realized was a great demon lord's shoulder, and she found herself looking at a mass of silver hair.

_Wow_, she thought to herself giddily, _shiny._

He began to climb the stairs, and Kagome felt guilty. She almost apologized for being a burden, but then could not decide how he would take that. Before she could make up her mind, he had deposited her on her bed and was gone again. Kikyou, who had only just come into the room to find it empty, had witnessed the whole thing with astonishment.

After that, she made certain that Kagome never again left the room alone.

Inuyasha did not need company. He wasted no time in heading off any suggestion that Nazuna or Nobunaga would travel with him.

Nazuna looked at him as though he were suggesting that she bear his children.

"Travel with you?" she asked. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Oh yeah?" he asked with indignation. "What else are you going to do, huh? Wander around in these hills 'til another one of those black demons gets you?"

"Do you _want_ me to go with you then?"

"I just said NO!"

"Then why don't you shut it?"

"Shut it?" he blinked.

"Yeah, shut it. No one asked you for anything. Thanks for saving me, again, but I'm not going to follow you around like a puppy because of that. Or did you want something else?"

He caught the suggestion in her tone and he bristled.

"As if!"

Nobunaga interrupted them.

"It's getting dark you know, maybe we should find a place to camp."

They turned on him.

"We're NOT traveling together!"

He waved his hands.

"No, no, of course not. But we're all here anyway and we need to sleep."

"Maybe you need to sleep," Inuyasha muttered.

"I'm not sleeping out in the woods," Nazuna declared.

"Oh, do you have a house nearby?" Nobunaga asked.

"My home is near, yes."

"Well, we would be glad to accept a night's comfortable lodging in exchange for saving you."

"Hey!" Inuyasha interjected. "You didn't do anything! And I told you, we're not traveling together!"

"Fine," Nazuna shrugged, ignoring Inuyasha. "There's plenty of room these days."

She turned and began walking south along the river.

"Good. Isn't that good, Inuyasha?" Nobunaga smiled.

Inuyasha stared at him.

"Something's the matter with you," he said. "Really. I don't have time for this."

Nobunaga did not respond, but left and followed Nazuna.

"Are you coming?" he called back.

Inuyasha considered complying. He wondered why he should have to be alone, but he shook it off. He did not say goodbye. He turned his face to the southeast again and continued traveling until the moon was high in the sky. He traveled on through the night, not wishing to risk another encounter with the paper monster.

When the sunrise broke the cold morning, he estimated that he was less than fifty miles from Edo. Despite his dedication to avoiding distractions, he could not help but skid to a sudden halt when he heard the clamor of many voices, shouting in alarm. They were so near that he could smell grease, sweat, and blood.

Even if it was simple curiosity, he could not stop himself from investigating. He told himself that he just wanted a little look. After all, maybe one of his friends was involved. Being this close to Edo, it was not impossible.

The alien voice was not buying it, but it did not comment.

Inuyasha veered to the left, heading a little north, and slowed down. He walked with caution through the dark and heavy pines and he smelled smoke ahead of him. He came to a clearing where many people were gathered and he hid himself behind a tree to learn what the commotion was about.

It became clear that several people were at the mercy of a large crowd. The crowd exhaled rage and a thirst for blood. Through many shouts he ascertained that the prisoners were accused of causing the rains, and thus many deaths.

Inuyasha knew it was impossible that these strangers were responsible for the rains. If anyone were to blame, it was him, or Naraku, or maybe Kagome. He sensed the explosive potential of the crowd and wondered if he should intervene before the luckless individuals were torn to pieces.

"Aren't you going to do something?"

Inuyasha jumped near out of his skin and pressed his back against the tree. For a split second, he thought it was just the nagging alien voice, but he saw a young man standing next to him, in commoner's clothes, who looked fourteen going on forty.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice down.

"I thought for sure you were to type to interfere in business like this," the young man said, ignoring his question. "Maybe I was wrong."

"Do I know you?"

"My name is Taroumaru," the boy answered. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"Sorry kid. Can't say that I do."

"You helped my village once."

_You're going to have to be more specific, _Inuyasha thought but didn't say.

"We were being terrorized by a demon masquerading as our water god. My father was the headman then."

Inuyasha stared at him, dumfounded, then groaned and sank his head into his hands.

"For crying out loud," he muttered. "What next?"

"Why do you spend all your time here?"

Tamotsu looked up from his idle occupation with a necklace that Kagome had surrendered to him for closer inspection. It was a simple medallion hung on a chain.

"There's nothing else to do," he shrugged.

"What did you do before I was here?" she asked.

"Well, back then, before the rains," he said, as if speaking of an era long past, "there were plenty of humans in the villages nearby."

This statement was followed by a long silence, and at length Tamotsu looked up from the necklace. Kagome's expression was one of dread and repugnance.

"I didn't eat them, Kagome-chan," he laughed.

Kagome flushed.

"Oh," she murmured. "Then what did you do?"

"I never had much to do with the men. But the girls were quite obliging. You may not believe this, Kagome-chan, but I'm considered a pretty sort of thing in some quarters."

"Oh," she said again, this time with less relief.

Then she turned her head to look out the window and her eyes were distant.

"I used to know someone like you."

"Used to?" Tamotsu asked.

"Well, I guess I still do. I hope I still do."

"I still don't understand how you had this on the whole time," Tamotsu said, holding up the necklace.

Kagome knitted her brows.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was there when Sesshoumaru brought you here. We treated your wounds, bathed and dressed you and—

"You did WHAT?" Kagome exclaimed, her face flaming and her voice elevating several octaves.

"Well…yeah. How did you think it happened?"

Kagome buried her face in her hands.

"I didn't think about it! Oh my god!"

"What's the matter with you?" he asked.

"What's the matter with _me_?" she cried. "What's the matter with you? You…you've…you've seen me naked! AND Sesshoumaru? Oh my god!"

"Oh, is that all?" he smirked at her. "You have nothing to be ashamed of."

Kagome's gasp echoed in the large room.

"Get out!"

"What?"

"GET OUT!"

She threw a seed pillow at him, which he easily dodged. She turned her back on him and buried her face in the remaining pillows.

With stoic gallantry, Tamotsu returned the pillow to its rightful place.

"I'm sorry, Kagome-chan," he said, still smiling. "I should have known that such an honorable maiden as yourself would react in such a way. I'll come back when you're less…flustered."

"I am not flustered!" Kagome's muffled voice still managed to carry indignation.

As he was leaving the room, he encountered Kikyou and he acknowledged her with a smirk and short bow.

"We are not having a good day," he warned her before he left.

Kikyou stared after him, then shrugged her shoulders and entered the room.

When she was able to get the story out of Kagome, she smiled in spite of herself.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially about Sesshoumaru. I doubt he would look at you twice."

Kagome felt a trifle hurt, then a little stupid for feeling a trifle hurt.

"Yeah, but that other one," she said. "You don't know what he's like."

"I assure you I know quite well," Kikyou responded. "I've caught him looking at both of us before. And Rin-san too, of course."

"Rin-chan? But she's just a child! How revolting!"

Kikyou gave her a sharp look.

"Kagome," she said in a firm voice, "Rin-san is not a child. She is older than when you first met her. Time has passed since then."

Kagome was about to retort that there was no need to restate the obvious, when she stopped. Had she really noticed? What did Rin actually look like, right now?

In truth, she wasn't sure.

"Damn," was all she said.

"Forgive yourself," Kikyou told her. "I have done the same. It's one of those habits we have to correct about ourselves."

The next day, Tamotsu returned, and Kagome tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

"Do you know Inuyasha?" she asked him.

Tamotsu was sitting cross-legged beside her, slicing a carrot. He offered her a slice, which she took and nibbled.

"No, I never met him."

"Are you related to him?"

"No. I am related to Sesshoumaru's mother."

Tamotsu popped a slice of carrot in his mouth. He noticed Kagome's expression had become pale and grave.

"What's the matter now?"

"It's nothing."

"If you intend to make a career of lying I suggest you practice, a lot."

Kagome rolled her eyes. Her attention was diverted by the low, mournful sighing of a dove, somewhere outside in the cold morning.

"I…I really can't talk about it."

Tamotsu rose without another word and left the room. Kagome stared after him, rather dumbfounded that she had offended him so easily.

_Maybe I shouldn't be spending so much time with him_, she thought to herself.

Only a few minutes later, however, he returned. He had brought Kikyou with him. Her expression was curious.

Tamotsu resumed his seat and picked up his carrot.

"Maybe you'll tell her?" he suggested.

Kagome looked at him, then at Kikyou, then at her hands.

"What is this about?" Kikyou stood at the foot of her bed.

"It happened back…after everything that happened," Kagome struggled. "I guess I forgot about it, until now."

"What?"

"Sesshoumaru's mother," she addressed Tamotsu. "Her name, it's Chiyoko, isn't it?"

Tamotsu stopped chewing and stared at her.

"I know that," she went on. "Because Ichiro told me."

Inuyasha shuffled through the calendar in his memory.

"So who's next?" he wondered aloud.

"I beg your pardon?" Taroumaru asked.

"It's nothing," Inuyasha shrugged. "So you were saying, you expect me to do something."

"If you don't, those people will burn."

"Burn?" Inuyasha looked at him sharply. "You're exaggerating."

"No, I've seen it before. I'm only one man. I can't stop it. Though, sometimes, I've cut it short."

A noise diverted Inuyasha's attention. He saw that the prisoners had been bound and that some in the crowd were busy carrying cut trees into the clearing.

Inuyasha considered his options. They were not many.

While he sat in thought, the fires had been fed and were now blazing over the heads of the people.

"If you're going to do something, you'd better do it soon," Taroumaru urged.

Inuyasha groaned and kicked the dirt. This was not going to be easy. If only Sesshoumaru were there. That kind of thing, come streaming from the sky with giant fangs thirsting for their blood, that'd show 'em.

Inuyasha stepped into the clearing.

_But he's not here. No one's here. I'm alone._

"Hey!" he shouted. "Hey!"

Nothing happened.

"Hey! You steaming piles of donkey shit!"

That got the attention of about half of them, the rest soon turned to see what their companions were looking at.

The crowd began muttering in ugly tones and Taroumaru realized with alarm that he was standing next to their new object of interest.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you, you sons of pigs. What's going on here? Disperse now and I might let you live."

This was not at all what Taroumaru had expected, but he found he was not unhappy about the turn events had taken. He did know Inuyasha well enough to understand that the half-demon was mostly bluffing, trying to frighten the crowd into backing down without violence.

The fanatical, however, are rarely so rational. With a few exchanged looks, they began to advance on the pair, with clubs, torches, and the other usual fare of peasant mobs.

Without changing expression, Inuyasha leapt into the air and over their heads. Taroumaru stared at him in astonishment.

"Watch out for yourself!" Inuyasha called.

Taroumaru was beginning to think he had made a slight miscalculation.

Inuyasha had not abandoned him however. In the few moments he spent in the air, he drew his sword.

Inuyasha had not touched Tessaiga since that terrible day, and he feared the sword might have forsaken him.

"I know you're probably pissed," he muttered, "about how things turned out. So am I. But don't turn your back on me now."

Before his toes touched the ground, Tessaiga had revealed itself. Most of the people nearby stopped and stared with incredulity. Here was a thing they had never before seen.

With one shout, Inuyasha warned all that would remain intact to scatter, and then with one swing he destroyed the bonfires. The power of Tessaiga tore through the clearing like lightening from the ground. The force smothered the fires and splintered the wood. People ran screaming in all directions.

In the turbulent confusion, Inuyasha looked around to see if anyone was hurt. He did not see any bodies lying on the ground. Off to the side, he saw Taroumaru hastily untying the prisoners. Inuyasha observed that they were all priests.

Inuyasha learned from the priests that they had been targeted by the mob for the sole reason that they were priests. Their shrine had been burned and its relics destroyed. They explained that, the best they could understand, they and their way of life was blamed for the cataclysmic rains.

Within minutes, it became clear that they looked to Inuyasha for what to do next. They had probably purified or otherwise nullified many demons in their career, but now was not the time to be finicky.

Inuyasha, however, had managed to shake off Nobunaga, and Nazuna, and countless other suppliants, and was not prepared to lead a gang of robed priests throughout the countryside. He made it clear that they were now on their own, and then he was gone.

Kagome related to Kikyou and Tamotsu everything that had transpired before she awoke in the Hyouden. They had already heard about her confrontation with Naraku. Now, she recounted every step she had taken in the dreaming world, and repeated every word she had heard, in particular from Midoriko and Ichiro. Every circumstance was questioned and examined by her audience.

"You should have told me this immediately," Kikyou said.

"I'm sorry."

The room was silent. At last, Tamotsu spoke.

"This is the real reason I've been here every day. I knew, sooner or later, something like this would come out."

"How did you know?" Kagome asked.

He shrugged.

"I can't say. It's not like you two. I haven't had dreams or visions. But I just know. Something big is coming and, unlike Sesshoumaru, I am not too blind to see it coming."

Kikyou began pacing the room.

"This is my fault," she murmured to herself.

"What?" Kagome asked.

"I have become complacent," she answered. "Here, in this house. I've become absorbed in chores and everyday details and have forgotten—no, I let myself forget—the forces that drove me here. I have let too many things slide."

"Kikyou, I don't think you're being fair to yourself."

"Don't you see?" Kikyou sat down beside her and took her hands with earnest. "Don't you see our danger? When we ignore the signs, we run the risk of repeating those same old cycles, of being punished."

She ran a bold hand down Kagome's wrist and up her right arm, following the lightening shaped scar.

"It's happened before."

Kagome snatched her hands away and her eyes fill with tears.

"It's no more your fault than mine, Kagome, much less so I'd say."

"For heaven's sake Kikyou, you were dead! How can you bear blame?"

"Maybe I was dead for the same reason."

"You're saying you ignored signs back then, that you engaged in the same behavior."

Kikyou was silent for a moment.

"I may have," she answered. "I can't recall. But just because I can't see it, doesn't mean it wasn't there."

Kagome shook her head. "This is too much," she said.

"Look at me!" Kikyou put her hands around Kagome's face. "Look here at what has happened. I am alive! Is that not too much?"

At this point, Tamotsu could no longer contain himself.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but wait. Alive? I feel I'm missing half the story here."

Kikyou looked at him, then at Kagome.

"Do you want me to explain it to him?"

"I certainly don't want to."

Kikyou closed her eyes for a moment to gather the armies of her memory and, for the first time in her life, she told the entire story of her own existence. She left nothing out. She explained, in vivid detail, how she had been entrusted with guarding the Sacred Jewel and how she had come to love the half-demon Inuyasha, and Tamotsu noticed that a shadow pass over Kagome's features. She recalled the dying bandit Onigumo and the events that led to her first death. She explained that she had attempted to take the Jewel with her to the afterworld, and to seal its powers, but instead it had gone to her reincarnation, Kagome. She recalled her resurrection at the hands of the witch, Urasue, and her years spent as the walking undead. She told them how she found and rescued Kohaku.

"Then, one night, I saw an apparition by the river. She was before me. I looked into her eyes. She was Death. I thought to myself: you knew you couldn't go on like this forever."

Tamotsu swallowed hard.

"She told me I was the wrong one," Kikyou went on. "Then she left. She took my soul collectors with her. I heard someone screaming my name, which I now know was Kagome, though she was miles away. I passed out."

She placed a hand over her heart.

"I awoke like this, and it was raining. The rest you know. Since that day I could hear Kagome's heart beating. I was following it when you found us."

Tamotsu said nothing for a long time. Then he questioned Kagome.

"And you said, that you met Ichiro-sama, and that he said everyone had to work together and that both of his sons were your allies, as well as Chiyoko-sama?"

"That pretty well sums it up, yes."

"Well, this has the honor of being the most insane morning I've ever spent," he shook his head. "What you're saying, what you're suggesting, is insanity."

"I quite agree," Kikyou said. "But it's true nonetheless."

"No," Kagome said. "Insanity was what we were doing before."

"What are you going to do now?" he asked them.

"The first thing is for Kagome to recover, and I mean more than merely her health," Kikyou answered. "I have cared for her physically, but have neglected her spiritually."

Kagome thought that sounded ominous.

"What do you mean?" she asked in alarm.

"I need to think of ways to train you, as a priestess."

Kagome did not even try to hide her displeasure.

"I was afraid you'd say that," she groaned, sinking back into her pillows.

Kikyou turned to Tamotsu.

"I don't think you need to tell Sesshoumaru-sama about any of this."

"What? But it obviously concerns him in particular."

"What do you suppose he will say?"

Tamotsu sighed.

"Someone is going to have wake that guy up," he said.

"Yes, but I do not think it will be anyone in this house," Kikyou said.

"It must be at least some comfort to you," Tamotsu said, not knowing for sure which miko he meant, "to know, by these visions, that they still live."

He wondered if he should at least tell Sesshoumaru that Inuyasha still lived, since he knew his cousin believed otherwise, but he did not voice these thoughts out loud.

They were silent for a few minutes, and then Kikyou said,

"Yes, we are lucky. They are probably scattered and know nothing."

Kagome thought not just of Inuyasha and her other traveling companions, but also of her mother, brother, and grandfather.

"It must be so lonely for them."

They did not speak of it anymore that day. Kagome and Tamotsu spent the remainder of it in their customary idleness. For most of the time, Rin was with them. Kikyou, however, had broken her absorbed distraction forever, and was dedicated with renewed vigilance to improving Kagome's condition. She spent the day searching the house and even the land nearby for items that could help her, ignoring the silent and implacable hostility of Jaken. Her preoccupation was a panacea to the pain of her memories and the fear for her future.

That night, Tamotsu drifted off to sleep humming one of Kagome's songs to himself.

_All you need is love, love._

Jinenji lumbered over his small garden plot, pulling out hard and thorny weeds with his giant hands. He had been fortunate up until now. The location of his little homestead was so clever that he had not lost everything to the rains. He managed, through perseverance and much toil, to eke out a meager existence and to sustain his neighbors, at least those that stuck around.

His neighbors had laughed with scorn when he filled every vessel he could get his hands on with water during the rains.

"Why do you save it? It's falling from the sky for free!"

Now, it had not rained in over two months, and the deluge, for all its tremendousness, was soon forgotten by the earth. He was already obliged to tap into his reserves.

He was on his way to his storage shed to retrieve some water, when he spotted a blur of red in the right field of his vision. In the next moment, he recognized the half demon, Inuyasha, who was approaching him, but did not seem to see him. In fact, Jinenji began to become alarmed, but not in time to prevent Inuyasha from tripping right into him.

Jinenji, of course, remained solid and unmoved. Inuyasha landed flat on his backside. He was thinking to himself how embarrassing it would be if he had just plowed into some great, demon lord. He pictured his brother looking down on him with his special brand of utter disdain. Instead, he looked up and saw the gentle giant he had met years ago.

"Jinenji!" he exclaimed.

"Hello, Inuyasha-sama," the giant rumbled.

"Could you excuse me a moment?" Inuyasha smiled at him. It was a strange, tight expression.

He then turned and went some distance away into a nearby field. Jinenji watched in perplexed wonder as Inuyasha stomped around in the field, swinging his sword at weeds and screeching the vilest profanities at the top of his lungs.

[End of Chapter Nineteen]

[Next Chapter: How Soon is Now?]


	20. How Soon is Now?

**Author's notes: **I'm sorry this chapter has taken so long. The main reason is that I am now looking for a job. Since I still have a job, that means I have a lot less free time on my hands. If you don't know, you're lucky, but looking for a job requires a lot of time and effort.

Also, this chapter is different than the previous few chapters in that we get to visit everyone this time, instead of just a couple of characters. It's also my longest yet.

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty: How Soon is Now?**

"_When you say it's gonna happen "now"  
well, when exactly do you mean?  
See I've already waited too long  
and all my hope is gone." – The Smiths_

The first thing they had to do was get Kagome on her feet. Kikyou came to realize that this would not occur in its own time. Kagome had made a few short, breathless journeys in the upper hall, but she still spent most of her time in bed. Kikyou saw that, if they were to ever get on with things, she would have to be firm.

With a determined step, she entered Kagome's room only an hour after daybreak. Kikyou had been awake already for several hours. Kagome was still asleep.

She stood next to the sleeping girl.

"Kagome, wake up," she commanded.

Kagome stirred, opened one bleary eye, and closed it again.

Kikyou would not repeat herself. She picked up a jug of water that had been sitting there all night and emptied its contents on Kagome's head.

Kagome sat up straight as an arrow, wiping her face and swearing.

"Kikyou! What the hell?"

"I said to wake up."

Kagome glared at her. The effect was made less intimidating by her dripping hair.

"Okay, so I'm awake," she said. "What's so important you had to try to drown me?"

"Don't exaggerate." Kikyou put the jug back on the floor then straightened and held her hand out to the other miko.

"Come on."

Kagome stared at her.

"Let's go, Kagome. We have much to do today."

"Kikyou…Kikyou, I can't, you know I can't."

"Don't be such a baby," Kikyou answered. "I'm not going to coddle you anymore. Get up."

Kagome glared at her again, then her eyes narrowed.

"I see. So now your true nature emerges again. It's really rather comforting, in a way. But it doesn't matter. Rin took care of me before you got here and she will continue to do so."

"No," Kikyou said firmly, "she will not."

"And why not?"

"I will not allow it."

"Kikyou!" Kagome slammed her fists down on her bedding. "What do you want from me? I said I can't. I would know wouldn't I? You don't know what I'm going through!"

"You're such a brat."

"Takes one to know one!" Kagome shouted at her.

Kikyou looked at her, her expression puzzled.

"I beg your pardon?"

Kagome bit her lower lip and flushed.

"Nothing," she said in a sullen tone, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Fine," Kikyou said. "Let that strange girl take care of you. You can sit here feeling sorry for yourself if you want to, but I'm leaving."

"Leaving?" Kagome looked up in alarm. "Where are you going?"

"What do you care?"

"Midoriko said we had to stay together!"

Kikyou shrugged. "Maybe you can explain to her why you refused to go with me."

"That's not fair!"

"Kagome," Kikyou said, "the others, including Inuyasha, are still out there. _I_ willfind them. _I _will bring them all together, and _I _will lead them to confront Naraku, and all the while you can sit here enjoying your invalidism. In fact, I'll have no choice but to tell Inuyasha when I see him that you chose to stay with his brother."

Kagome gasped. "You wouldn't _dare_!"

"Wouldn't I?" Kikyou's expression was unconcerned.

"Besides," she added with a superior, dismissive little sniff. "We don't need you anyway."

Kagome leapt to her feet, her eyes blazing.

"You go too far!" she screamed at her.

"My goodness," Kikyou smirked at her. "She lives."

Kagome flushed and looked down at her guilty feet.

"It hurts," she said, after a long silence.

Kikyou was not sure if the girl was referring to her legs or to what Kikyou had said. She decided that it didn't matter.

"Yes dear, I know," her expression softened, and she extended her hand again. "But precious things must be purchased. I will help you through it."

Kagome raised her head and looked at her for a moment. Then she reached out and took Kikyou's hand.

Kagome and her friends had endured long torture under the rains, being cast about in dreams like tiny ships on storm lashed seas. Now they were all awake and moving, but in a dry and desolate world of uncertainty and alienation. Sesshoumaru's turn, however, was just beginning. In truth, he might have been spared, but for one small oversight.

It began with his desire to sleep. It was not a need that would incapacitate a human or a demon less than himself. It was rather a slight ache, a longing to be suspended in a dark place without gravity, without dust, and without senses. He would have known it to be nostalgia, if he had possessed the experience to recognize such a thing.

He could not close his eyes for long without seeing the frenzied stars in a collusion of infinite energy. Raging power and endless time collapsed in a single moment and gave way the very next instant to a towering, unimaginable silence. It was a nothing that was beyond mortal comprehension—and mortal he felt himself to be, more mortal than anything that crawled upon the earth. The heatless vacuum wrapped around him with devastating determination. There was no pain, only a sense of annihilating pressure and, worse—oh so much worse than everything else—was the recognition of inevitability.

Sesshoumaru never got any further than this before opening his eyes, sometimes in a cold sweat but always with a quickened heart. Most of the time he never got half as far.

Kikyou and Kohaku had been in his home for more than two months when he decided that he was quite irritated.

At first he considered the possibility that Kikyou was behind it all. The first time he had been treated to this vision was when she had touched him on the day she had arrived. She had shown no sign, however, that she was aware of what had happened, and now she avoided him. He discounted the possibility that she was behind it, at least directly.

It so happened that Sesshoumaru was passing near the door to the sick room one day when he heard the miko's voice explaining in a patient tone.

"This is how it must be done, Midoriko said so."

In Sesshoumaru's mind the pieces fit together all at once. He knew of the cave where the ancient miko was forever enshrined. He also knew that her soul, or part of it, was still in the Shikon no Tama. It only stood to reason that her awareness was still active in the world, and that she could still interfere with events among the living.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made to him. He resolved that very day to travel to the shrine and see if he might engage her in some way. He wondered if he destroyed the shrine—which he was sure would be no great task—if she would then be unable to manipulate his sleep and cast visions at him from afar. There was only one way to find out.

Having a task and a clear goal at hand made him feel better already. He insisted that Tamotsu accompany him, which was a convenient excuse for getting his idiot cousin away from that other miko, the wounded one. Sesshoumaru found his attentions to her to be a trifle disconcerting.

Lucky for Sesshoumaru, they never made it to Midoriko's cave. What she may have been obliged to do to persuade him to give up this insane venture can only be guessed. Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu did not even make it more than five minutes out of the lands of the Hyouden. Moving northeast, they soon encountered startling evidence that the country was sundered by more than hardship and want.

They flew high above the treetops, higher than most birds. Tamotsu glanced to his left and saw a sullen red sky. At first he assumed it was the sunset, but then it occurred to him that it was quite early in the day for sunset.

_Well, it's getting on in winter I guess. Day's are shorter._

Tamotsu came to a sudden stop. Since when did the sun set in the north?

"Sesshoumaru!" he called. "What is that?"

Sesshoumaru, still heading east at a good speed, felt a cold knot form in his gut. The last time Tamotsu said that, he had ended up with three extra humans in his house. Still, he stopped and turned, and saw the angry and blazing northern sky.

"It's just a brush fire," he said.

"It's awfully close to the Hyouden, Sesshoumaru," his cousin said. "We should check it out."

Sesshoumaru did not answer, but he followed Tamotsu a short distance in that direction.

They saw demons they had never seen before—small and black, they covered the land in a voracious, writhing carpet. Smoke rose to create a dirty, grey fog over the forest. Villages that nestled in the mountains and valleys were in flames, setting the hills aglow, as though they were drenched in blazing blood. Here and there, scattered across many miles, Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu could see the signs and hear the sounds of turmoil and struggle, as some humans and demons attempted to resist the implacable tide of destruction.

"What has happened?" Tamotsu cried in dismay.

Sesshoumaru said nothing. He looked to the north at the glowing forest and then to the east. Tamotsu meanwhile, was staring at him and chewing his lower lip.

_You're not that far gone, are you?_

Sesshoumaru's back stiffened and he turned to his cousin with hard eyes.

"Are you going to just stand there?" he demanded. "The more we kill today, the less we'll have to kill tomorrow."

After that, Sesshoumaru and his cousin spent almost every hour of each day hunting and destroying these spider-like demons. They were not much larger than the average human and though their many limbs were strong and wiry, they were nothing compared to the two dog demons. They lacked any leadership or organization; their only apparent goal was to consume, break, and burn. Their only advantage was in sheer numbers. It seemed that for every one that Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu smashed into oblivion a dozen more would appear, from the woods, from the hills, from cracks in the very ground. This did not worry Sesshoumaru, however, because it kept him too busy to think about sleep, stars, prophecies, or human priestesses.

He could not help but notice one strange thing about them. It was Tamotsu who brought it up.

"Have you noticed they don't smell like anything?" he said one day. "I mean, sometimes they smell like blood and humans, but that's what's _on_ them."

"I have noticed. They also do not have a sense of demon to them."

"Right," Tamotsu agreed as he coolly lopped off the head of one of them. "If you don't see or hear them, you wouldn't know that they are there."

A week or so later, Tamotsu informed Sesshoumaru that he had learned that almost all humans to the north had disappeared, either killed or fled, and that the new monster was called "Tsuchigumo", though still no one knew from whence they came.

Sesshoumaru did not care what they were called and he continued entertaining himself by counting how many he could kill in a day. Tamotsu was cheerfully exterminating large groups of the demons in another part of the valley, when Sesshoumaru, almost wading through corpses, first saw her.

After destroying a small band of the demonic vermin, he found a wolf demoness, huddling with fear at the bottom of a black pit of carcasses. She realized the battle was finished, and she raised her head with caution.

When she saw him, she leapt to her feet and exclaimed:

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Thank you!"

Sesshoumaru was silent. She looked young, but careworn. She wore gray fur across her shoulders and a short sword strapped to her waist. Her wealth of red hair was gathered at each side of her head and was covered with a veil of irises imbued with a strange holiness.

"This foe is beyond you," he said. "Go home."

She drew herself up.

"I cannot go back," she said in a clear, stern voice. "These monsters are everywhere, more so than you realize, maybe. They are harassing my people and ruining our lands. I must find a way to get rid of them."

"That is quite absurd," Sesshoumaru said. "You will never be able to do anything of the kind. You are on the road seeking your own death."

"So be it," she said without a hint of emotion. "But…maybe if you help me…"

"Your fate and that of your kindred does not concern me," he turned to leave.

"I have sacred jewel shards!" she called after him.

Sesshoumaru stopped, and the demoness looked triumphant.

"What do you hope to gain by lying?" he asked. "Do you not think I would sense sacred jewel fragments?"

"Well…" she faltered, crestfallen. "I mean I have access to them. They're not with me, of course!"

Sesshoumaru sighed. He may as well clear up the matter.

"I happen to know," he said, "that Naraku has all but three of the shards. One is in my possession as we speak, and the other two are still with the wolf-demon Kouga. Are these then what you would use to tempt me?"

The she-wolf's eyes widened. Her mouth was open, but she could not answer.

"They are not yours to give, nor would I be interested even could you produce them. As I said, go home."

He left her standing there in the mountains beyond the northern most reaches of his lands, staring after him with unshed tears stinging her eyes.

Kaede's arthritic hands chafed under the stiff and coarse sheets. It seemed to her that she had washed and hung hundreds in the past few weeks. A never-ending marching line of sheets, a white, ghostly army, hung on twine cords stretched from tree to tree behind the village, billowing and whipping in the cold wind. They were taken each morning from the beds of people too weak or sick to get up to relieve themselves. Kaede waded hip deep in laundry and was up to her elbows in human filth every day. Not a day passed when she did not wander what had happened to Inuyasha and Kagome, and to her sister Kikyou.

There was so little to eat, and no medicine to speak of. Behind the flapping sheets the ground was rippled with the pathetic little mounds of the recently departed. Because the disaster and the absence of Inuyasha and Kagome coincided, she could not help thinking that if they would just come back, it would all get better somehow. She would pause in her work and gaze toward the northwest.

_You can't get here fast enough._

Dusk was stalking another day when a sudden shadow passed above her. Kaede looked up from her chore of repairing a doorframe in her house. She caught a glimpse of a large shape that appeared to be flying through the air, heading toward the southern end of the village.

_Demon,_ she thought and, by instinct, ducked inside to gather up a bow and arrows. When she emerged, she heard screaming and horrible crunching and tearing sounds. She ran in the direction of the mayhem, limping because of a stiffened knee.

There was blood, clumps of hair, bits of bones, and rags of flesh scattered on the ground. She raised her bow and pointed the first arrow at a towering demon that looked like an ogre. She knew she was dead, however, when she saw the spider imprint on his back.

_Well, it's about time. I'm too old for this shit anyway. I never expected to live this long._

She released her shot, but her arrow could not muster the power to break into that monster's foul frame. It did get his attention, however, and he turned his massive head and red, beady eyes in her direction. She now thought him more of a troll than an ogre. He was enormous and sinewy, with a shag of black hair covering most of him. His teeth were rows of sharp yellow daggers and his hands sported black and red claws.

"What do you want here?" she demanded.

"Are you a priestess?" he growled in a voice like tumbling rocks.

"I am. Who, or what, are you?"

He did not answer. He leapt forward on frog-like legs and came down behind her, sending turf and grass spraying everywhere. Clumps of it landed and caught in her gray hair.

She turned, but not quick enough. A heavy hand came down on her shoulder. The force sent her to the ground even before she could feel the claws that cut a gash in her back. She lay on the ground, knowing that not moving would mean the end, but not able to gather the strength of will to even blink. She saw the blood staining the grass and thought,

_It's almost like Kikyou's wound._

She heard shouting, screaming, and children crying. On her stomach, she shifted her head so she could see the final blow coming.

"Where is the priestess called Kagome?" the monster asked her.

Kaede was surprised. She shifted her eyes to look at him, then looked around. When she tried to speak, the words came out in an unintelligible and pathetic wheeze.

It was not to be easy. She was not so weak as she supposed. He kicked her in her wounded shoulder and it seemed to shatter like glass and she screamed, but still, she did not die.

"Where is she?" he roared.

Kaede shuddered in ragged breaths.

"I…don't…know. I swear. Think…think she's dead."

"Where is her family?"

Kaede's forehead creased. She looked at him again.

"I…never…knew them…no one…does."

He kicked her again, but Kaede only groaned this time. She noted with satisfaction that she was unable to feel anything. Her vision blurred and a grayish dark began to overtake it at the edges. It would soon be over now. She closed her eyes.

_Kagome, Kagome, who stands behind you now?_

The pain was gone, and a numb and pleasant drowsiness replaced it. She was troubled by confusion for only for a moment when she heard Kikyou humming a soft tune and felt her brushing her hair, and she inhaled the warm smell of dough that came from her mother's hands.

_These precious things._

In that moment, when Inuyasha collided with Jinenji, when Kagome's grandfather turned to white bones and ash, when Shippou said goodbye to Hachi, and when Sesshoumaru shrugged off the wolf demonness, Kaede was gone—just one last, black supernova, and it was over.

Inside Yuka, there was a voice that told her that she had made a terrible mistake by moving into the Higurashi shrine. The voice began to grow louder the day Souta struck her.

The worst thing about it was that she knew it to be entirely against his character, not only because he was by nature a sweet and gentle boy, but also because he was a coward. In the silence that followed, she knew with cold certainty that something was driving him insane. He thought he saw contempt in her eyes, but it was actually pity and dread.

_What if it's the house, or the shrine? What if I'm insane too and I just don't know it? What then?_

That night, after they had delivered Grandfather Higurashi's remains to the funeral home, Yuka lay in Kagome's bed, shivering and wide awake, staring out at the full moon.

When exhaustion finally overcame her, she fell into restless dreams, dreams that she had repeated many times before.

She is driving, not in the city but along a narrow and winding road that ribboned through the mountains. It is dark, and the beams of her little car did not seem capable of penetrating the night. She is seized by a terror of running headlong off the edge and into a bottomless chasm below.

_Just stop! _her mind screeched at her, _just hit the brake!_

She does not, not then, but something always stops her anyway. A shadowy figure darts in from nowhere and blurs in front of the weak headlights. With a cry of dismay, Yuka slams on the brakes. She hears the screech of tires followed by a pitiful, aching yelp.

The car stops. Her hand gropes for the door handle.

_No! Don't go outside!_

"Why not?" she asks out loud.

_Oiwa is out there!_

But Yuka knows that Oiwa is just an old legend, a pale shade, so she opens the door. She walks to the front of her car. In the low, yellow light of the headlights she sees that she has struck an animal. It lies on the road, crumpled and bloodied.

_What is it?_

"I don't know."

She bends over the creature, but when she does, its eyes snap open and it snarls. She jumps back.

It's a wolf.

_There are no wolves in Japan anymore._

The wolf is not affected by this revelation. He rises and limps away from the road. At the edge of the forest, he turns to look at her. Yuka, frozen in fear and fascination, feels a tug, an urge to follow. His golden eyes are curious. He stares at her, then turns his head to the woods, then turns to her again.

"No," she whispers, the words steaming in the cold. "I cannot."

She does not see him move, but his figure dissolves into the dark trees.

Yuka awoke with the first pale light of the winter morning. Her eyes were gritty and burning, as though she had not slept a moment. She went through that day with Higurashi, Souta, and the smoke and white bones that was all that remained of the little, senile old man she had not really known.

The man who drove them home (some distant relative, but Yuka never found out precisely) thought that the trio was numbed and silent from their loss. He was better off thinking that.

Yuka climbed the staircase to Kagome's room, hung her dress coat in the closet and put her patent leather pumps under the bed. She went to the window, slid it open, and looked out at the courtyard. Souta, in his black suit and thin tie, stood under the tree.

The doorbell rang and startled Yuka so that she turned with a sudden jerk and bumped Kagome's desk with her hip. The little glass bottle with the cork stopper rolled off the edge and shattered. She saw that it had fallen just right, or just wrong, to hit the edge of a metal wastebasket.

Visitors had come to pay their respects to the Higurashi family. Yuka almost forgot to breathe when she saw Eri and Ayumi standing on the threshold, dressed in somber black. The image, with its old familiarity and comforting normalcy, threw her into a state of affliction. She could not even manage a simple greeting before bursting into tears.

They assumed she was distraught over Grandfather Higurashi's passing. Ayumi wrapped her arms around her friend and stroked her hair.

"There, there," she said. "He was old, Yuka, it was his time."

Yuka only cried harder. She wanted to explain to them how she was trapped in a madhouse, how she was certain that Kagome's vengeful spirit was driving them all insane, but she could not manage her breathing enough to speak. She was led back into the house and asked to sit down on a chair in the dining room.

Eri bid Ayumi to stay with Yuka while she searched for Mrs. Higurashi.

Yuka continued to sob, with Ayumi's hand on her back, wishing with brutal desperation that she could tell them everything, could somehow make them understand.

By this time, Ayumi was beginning to think that Yuka's mourning was excessive for someone she hardly knew, and she wondered if there wasn't something else to it, but she said nothing.

Eri found Higurashi in the kitchen, cramming books, small bags of food, and bottles of water into an oversized pack.

"Please excuse me, Higurashi-san," she bowed. "Yuka let us in. Ayumi and I came to tell you how sorry we were for your loss."

Higurashi turned in a start and stared at her. Eri was shocked at the woman's appearance. Her hair was tangled and her eyes were bright and wild.

"Higurashi-san?"

"I…I thank you, Ayumi-chan, but I have to go."

"Oh, but, it's late and cold out," Eri said, ignoring that she had been called the wrong name. "If you need something, perhaps we can get it for you? It would be no trouble."

"No, no I need to go to the library."

Now Eri was beginning to feel alarmed.

"Higurashi-san," she asked in a soothing tone, as all people do when addressing someone who is either sick or crazy, "where is Souta?"

Higurashi just shook her head and would not look at her.

"Higurashi-san," Eri reached out to grab her arm, but just then, Yuka appeared in the room.

Ayumi was standing behind her looking like a person lost and desperate for a solution.

Yuka did not speak to them. She walked past them and out the kitchen door into the courtyard.

While Yuka had been with her friends in the living room, Souta had returned to the house and had climbed the stairs to his sister's room. He walked in and went to the window and stood staring at the old well house, listening to his breath vibrate in the overwhelming emptiness that filled that room.

He was about to leave when he noticed the flowers, the little snowdrops, drooping on the windowsill. They looked lifeless.

A chill went through him and he shuddered. Without warning, he was overcome by a dark drowsiness. He stumbled to the bed and fell on it, and descended into a coma-like sleep.

Souta stood in the courtyard again, under the great tree. He was still wearing his funeral clothes. He turned and looked up at this sister's window and saw Yuka looking down at him. He turned away, puzzled. Had he not been here before? Yes, and then he had gone upstairs to his sister's room. He thought, in a fuzzy, half-formed logic, that he should do the same thing again, and he turned to go into the house.

A strange noise drew him back. It was a creaking rattle. He turned and saw, to his horror, that the well house door was locked again. The rattle was someone pulling and pushing on the door, violently trying to get out.

_Oh no! Kagome!_

At once elated that she had returned and terrified that she would be stuck in there forever, he ran to the shed to get the bolt cutters again. When he had returned, the door was no longer rattling. His stomach heaved, but he went up to the door anyway.

He stopped. Something was wrong. He heard breathing on the other side of that door, groaning, slobbering breath. An eerie red light beamed through the cracks in the wood. His blood began to pound in his ears. He felt waves of malice pouring at him.

_Dear mother,_ he thought in a blind panic, _don't let it get me!_

Souta awoke with a jerk. He was on his sister's bed, and according to the clock he had been asleep for less than ten minutes. Nonetheless, he felt more awake than ever. His heart was slamming blood through his temples. Shaking, he rose to his feet and went to close the window.

_It was only a dream,_ he thought. _After everything that's happened, it's no wonder._

When he reached for the window, he saw to his amazement that Yuka and his mother were standing in the courtyard. Two other women were with them and after a moment or two he discerned that they were Eri and Ayumi.

_What the devil are they doing here? Haven't we got enough to worry about?_

His blood ran cold. Why were they all staring at the well house? What did they see?

What did they _hear_?

Yuka was standing much closer to it than the others. He saw that she was, in fact, moving toward it. He began to shake again. Reaching into his bones for strength, he leaned out the window and shouted to her,

"Yuka! Get away from there!"

After he had calmed himself enough to stop inventing profanities, Inuyasha plopped down in the field to consider his options. After a moment or two, he sensed that Jinenji was behind him. The giant sat down beside Inuyasha and looked at him with a steady gaze, but said nothing.

"Ah," Inuyasha shrugged. "It's not like I'm mad at your or anything. I just realized that I'm going in circles. I think it's somebody's idea of a joke."

Jinenji nodded but did not say anything.

"I don't like being pulled by strings."

"That must be very frustrating," the giant said at last.

"Yeah."

"Where is Kagome-chan?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to find her."

Jinenji stood up, his large blue eyes alarmed. "Let's go then. I'll help you!"

Inuyasha started to give him the same response he had given Nobunaga, but then he stopped. What was he making such a fuss about? What difference did it make if someone wanted, actually _wanted_, to come along? Why was he being so difficult? What if, for once, he didn't argue? What would happen if he just said, 'yes, that'd be great'? Tidal waves? Earthquakes? Shit.

"Do you have any supplies?" he asked the giant. "Like food and water?"

Jinenji looked back to his house. "I think I have a few things that could be useful. How much should we take?"

"As much as we can carry," Inuyasha answered. "I don't know how long it will take and I need to go back to pick up a couple of humans."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'll explain on the way."

They filled packs with tender, flint, food, and containers of water. Inuyasha was startled to see that Jinenji still had some of the clear, durable bottles that Kagome used to carry. Seeing them hurt, badly.

Inuyasha explained everything to the gentle giant, the Plateau, where he had spent the terrible period of the rains, and what he had done since then. He even opened up to him enough to share some general theories that he had been cooking in his admittedly less-than-brilliant mind. He said he believed that the rains had been related to what happened on the Plateau and to Kagome specifically. Jinenji agreed that, if that were true, the cessation of the downpour was a good sign. When he learned that the rains had ended at the same time that Inuyasha started moving again, he proposed that it was probably not a coincidence.

Jinenji had his own information to share. Through him, Inuyasha learned that the spider-like demons were called "Tsuchigumo", and that what he had seen of them had only been the extreme fringe.

"There are masses of them to the north and to the west," Jijenji said. "It is said that they outnumber the stars."

"You know, there's a thing about Naraku and spiders."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he seems to be attracted to dark and ugly things. He bears a spider symbol on his back, and so do all of his detachments. I guess that's probably not a coincidence either."

Jinenji pursed his lips. "No, probably not."

After they had stuffed several packs, Jinenji asked him, "When do you want to leave?"

"Do you have any plans for now?"

"No."

They stepped out of Jinenji's shack and the giant pulled the door close. He took out a blade, one that would have been a short sword to a child but to him was a small pocketknife, and he carved a symbol into the wood door.

"What's that?" Inuyasha asked him.

"It says 'plague'," Jinenji said. "Lots of diseases have been going around lately. It will discourage looters."

"Do you think that'll work? I bet lots of people overuse it."

The giant shrugged. "Some may ignore it, but most believe it doesn't pay to take chances."

"Which way?" he asked his new traveling companion.

"Back the way I came," Inuyasha jerked his thumb over his shoulder, toward the valley.

They were both half-demons, which meant that they did not need to sleep and eat as much as humans, so they made good time. They camped for two nights in the dark forest that covered the foothills before they made it back to where Inuyasha had last seen Nobunaga and Nazuna.

Following Hachi's directions, it took Shippou and Kagura less than three days to locate the demon sword smith, Totosai. He had not left his island. The water had long drained away, but Totosai was creative. To discourage visitors, he replaced it with lava instead. The Tsuchigumo were nothing to take lightly, but they couldn't fly.

Shippou could, however. Totosai was sitting in the doorway of a small hut smoking a long stemmed pipe when a hawk of outrageous proportions circled down around his head and landed in his little dirt lawn. The old man leapt to his feet sputtering and cursing when he saw that it was none other than the young kitsune, Shippou.

"What in the name of the eight great islands are you doing?" he screamed at them.

Shippou looked at him in surprise. "I thought you'd be glad to see me!"

"Yeah?" he said, glaring down at them. "Well I thought you and the rest of them would be putting a stop to all this! Why aren't you? Where's Inuyasha?"

"I don't know, Totosai, we got separated."

"I see." He noticed Kagura, and leered at her with his bugged eyes. "Who's your friend?"

Shippou jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "That's Kagura. She's with me. Actually, she's why I'm here.

"I'm not interested, if you're looking to sell her. I've got enough to worry about."

"What? What the hell gave you a crazy idea like that?"

Totosai blinked at him. "Huh? What's that boy? I'm a little hard of hearing."

Shippou rolled his eyes.

Kagura, meanwhile, was busy sputtering with inarticulate outrage.

"She needs a weapon, Totosai," Shippou said.

The old man's eyes became intent.

"What happened to her old one?" he asked.

Shippou started. "Do you know her then?"

"I think I've seen her before, doing errands for that half-demon, Naraku." He shifted his gaze to Kagura. "We've done well for ourselves, eh?"

"I guess you could say that," Kagura answered through clenched teeth.

"So? What happened to your old one?"

"I'm not sure. I remember breaking it. I think I threw it away. It was…hateful."

"Hateful?" Shippou asked.

"It burned me to touch it."

"Oh," he murmured, almost to himself. "That seems promising."

It was the high-pitched whine of the air that warned her. Kagura leapt to the side without thinking as a giant hammer crashed into the ground where she had been standing, sending chunks of sod and mud catapulting through the air.

"Totosai!" Shippou shouted. "What are you doing? She's not with him anymore!"

"Pfft!" Totosai scoffed. "I don't care about that. But I need to see her powers if I'm going to make her a weapon."

"I don't have any you old fool!" Kagura screamed at him. "That's why I'm here!"

She dodged another strike. This one landed so hard the earth shook.

"I can't make you a demon weapon if you don't have demon powers. You are a demon. They are in there somewhere. You'd better start thinking of something."

With no effort, he swung the titanic hammer in a low arch, sweeping it through the lava. He picked it up, meaning to bring a lava-encrusted blow down on her head.

"Totosai, I'm warning you!" Shippou shouted, as the air around him began to shift.

Totosai stopped for a moment, giving him a sidelong glance.

"Momo!" he shouted. "Take care of him, would ya?"

Shippou did not have time to react before a three-eyed cow came thundering from behind the hut, stamping fire and breathing steam.

"Oh, fucking shit!" Shippou shouted before rolling out from under a stampede of hooves.

The cow turned with amazing agility and was on him again in a moment. With no other plan available, Shippou grabbed the horns. He found himself seated atop the cow's head.

This was not to Momo's liking. The beast bellowed with rage and began thrashing his head and hindquarters in all directions.

Totosai lifted his hammer again. Kagura saw the blow coming, and saw Shippou being tossed about like a leaf in a storm. Her heart was pounding. She wanted to run, she wanted to help Shippou, and most of all she wanted to kill this old geezer. The whistle of the air told her that the hammer was moving again.

"No!" she shouted in desperation. "Be there!"

Then there was no hammer. Totosai stared in dismay at his weapon, which was now sinking in the lava some fifty yards away. She hadn't pushed it, or thrown it, or even touched it. She had just _told_ it to be somewhere else!

He heard the sound of the fox kit still being jostled about on the head of his cow, as if he were riding in a cart with a broken wheel and trying to sing at the same time.

"Momo stop," he said absently, still staring at the hammer that was cheerfully floating away down his molten river.

Shippou landed with a thump and a groan on the ground.

Despite the general state of privation that shadowed the country, Sango and Miroku dwelt in near domestic bliss. Sango had not given up on the notion of looking for their friends or of pursuing Naraku but, like Sesshoumaru, she had decided that if she were patient the solution would come to her.

As Kyotou had predicted, the village began to gradually re-populate. Most of the arrivals were people who had lived there before, but mixed in were some individuals who had been wandering for so long that they could no longer recall where they had been before the rains. They had stumbled upon the village and decided that this was as good a place to land as any.

Among the arrivals were Kyotou's wife and Suzume, the apprentice who had followed Kyotou as Momiji's replacement when Momiji stayed behind with the unconscious Miroku and Sango. Her reunion with Momiji was tearful on both sides.

Most did not know Sango and Miroku, and could not connect their common clothes and healthy faces with the dead strangers that had been found when the rains began and then had miraculously come back to life. Momiji saw no reason to educate them.

Sango and Miroku might have gone on like this for much longer, if not for the _Movement_ and the _Warrant._

The _Movement_ was the first infection that spread to the village. Some of the newcomers brought it with them, and travelers on the road were bent on spreading it to anyone who would listen. At first, it was limited to muttering over jugs of water-downed rice wine, and to rumors whispered between neighbors. It seemed a small thing, something that would pass, but when Sango first caught wind of it, she was worried.

One night, after they had been in their new home for a few weeks, Sango related what she had heard to her husband.

"Some say the old gods are all evil tricksters, and that those who serve them are really deceitful devils. Others say the gods are angry, that the old ways are wrong and that the people have been misled by the priests and monks."

Miroku was troubled, but tried not to show it.

"It will pass," he said. "When times are difficult, it is natural to look for explanations, and for someone to blame. But it will pass."

"All the same," she said, "we should not make it generally known that you are a monk."

Miroku sighed. "I'm not sure if I am a monk anymore."

Sango did not know what to say to that, but she was distressed.

"I wish we could hide your prayer beads," she fretted.

"There's nothing for it," he said, toying with the string of beads around his right hand. "I have to wear them."

They did not say anything else, fearful that the conversation would turn toward the subject of hunting Naraku and thus to an old argument.

After that conversation, Miroku began to notice sharp, shifty glances between men if Momiji walked past. Once, he caught one man fingering a knife and leering at her back, but when he looked again the man was using the knife to clean his fingernails. Unable to convince himself that it had meant nothing, he kept a closer watch over her from then on.

Momiji was not as ignorant of the growing hostility as Miroku supposed. Suzume had given her a full account of everything that had happened to their people since they had left the village. She recounted where they had gone, how they had survived, and listed those that did not make it. She also explained how the first whispers of the _Movement _had reached her, and who had given into it first. By the time they followed Kyotou back to their home, some spoke openly to Suzume about her role in a corrupt culture that had caused so much suffering.

Suzume was still young despite her hardships, and she was dumbfounded that she could be doing anything wrong by following what she had been taught her entire life.

She warned Momiji that among the most ardent converts to the _Movement_ was Kyotou's wife. This did not surprise Momiji. If anyone would enjoy seeing her hanged or thrown on a bonfire, it was that one.

Momiji and Suzume continued in their duties with increased vigor. They tended the sick and wounded, comforted the dying, cared for children whose parents had to work rebuilding the village, and they performed purifications rituals over every new house, shed, or animal pen. Momiji hoped that such displays of tender devotion would remind the people of how she had always been there for them, and how important it was to have the cohesive bond of spirituality.

One night she returned exhausted to her own hut, which she now shared with Suzume again, intent on falling into bed. Suzume burst into the little house in a whirlwind of panic.

"Wait, Momiji-sama!"

She went to the hard, narrow bed and threw back the covers. Momiji recoiled with a startled oath. A thick-bodied, mottled brown snake lay coiled in the bed, hissing and spitting warnings. Suzume explained that she had chanced to overhear two women giggling about the prank.

The next day, Momiji found a moment to speak to Kyotou in private. She was careful that others would not see him conversing with her.

"I'm certain it was her," she told him. "I have done no evil to your wife. Please, restrain her!"

"I might have been a happier man for a long time now if I could do such a thing," he said. "That woman is wicked. And besides, Momiji-san, she believes you have done and continue to do her great evil."

"You cannot believe that _Movement_ nonsense!"

"Of course not! But that is not of what I speak anyway," his expression darkened and he stared at her intently.

Momiji flushed. "That's not fair. Kyotou-sama, with regards to you, I have never…I mean I haven't—

He turned without warning and grabbed her arms. Momiji bit her lip to keep from crying out as he dragged her behind a dark net of juniper trees. The sun had long sunk behind the hills and the purple sky darkened with every minute. She could see Kyotou's eyes shining in front of her face.

"The time has come, Momiji," he whispered. "There's no reason to stay here anymore."

She stared at him with wide eyes.

"What were all those reasons? I don't even remember, but they're gone now."

"Kyotou…"

"And you, you are in great danger here," he leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. "I won't be able to protect you, or myself, much longer I think."

"These people," Momiji whispered, "know not what they do. They still need us!"

"If we wait too long, I fear we will not escape at all."

The denouement came sooner than even Kyotou feared. The very next day, a newcomer arrived in the village, worn and travel stained. He demanded to see the leader and his manner was so haughty and severe that none dared detain him and he was taken to Kyotou.

It happened that Miroku was in Kyotou's company at that time. They were speaking in quiet, urgent tones about the precariousness of their situation in the village.

He came into Kyotou's hut, one of the most dilapidated in the village because the chief had worked on every other structure first, and he gave a short, perfunctory bow. He was an average looking man, with a scarred face and graying hair. He wore a sword openly, strapped to his belt.

"Where are you from?" Kyotou asked him.

"Far away," the man shrugged.

Kyotou's face darkened. He did not care for the man's superior tone.

"What business brings you here?"

"Have you heard of the great Henshin-sama?"

"Henshin-sama? Sounds like some kind of demon."

The man's eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared.

"Most certainly not," he declared. "He is both a mighty and a righteous leader, who is seeking to spread his protection over all these lands."

"So he is another warlord then. I have no use for any of that."

"Do not be so quick to dismiss him and what he offers," now the man's eyes shone with an unwholesome zeal. "He has already begun cleansing the land of the infection that has brought us so much misery."

Miroku's eyes widened. "Are you saying he is behind the _Movement_?"

The man looked at Miroku as if noticing him for the first time and he sneered.

"I was addressing the lord of this place, not you."

Kyotou was silent for a moment. His instincts told him that the situation portended a danger, though hidden.

"Answer the question," he ordered.

"We _are_ the _Movement,_" the man declared, almost frothing at the mouth. "And so are you. So are all men who would be free of the yoke of evil demons, treacherous monks, and wicked priestesses."

"What do you want of us?"

"Only one thing," he answered in a more calm tone. "I have been sent with a message. You need only accept it."

He held out a rolled parchment. "This has been spread or is being spread across every corner of the country. You would be wise to heed it."

Kyotou took it, and the man turned his back and left without another world. He left the village and was never seen or heard from again.

Kyotou unrolled the document, read it quickly, then turned to Miroku. He looked at him for a moment, shaking his head.

"Holy shit," he said at last. "We're in for it now."

"What does it say?" Miroku asked.

"Can you read?"

Miroku nodded.

"Then see for yourself," he pushed the document into Miroku's hands and then sat down in front of his small fire, placing his head in his hands.

Far away to the west, in the Hyouden, Kikyou had begun training Kagome to regain the use of both her legs and her priestess skills. To the north, Totosai was instructing Kagura on using her powers, while Inuyasha and Jinenji searched for Nobunaga and Nazuna. To the east, Kaede was on her funeral pyre. But Miroku knew none of this when he unrolled the parchment and read the following:

_**Warrant**_

_Being that the Lord Henshin has sought to restore peace and prosperity to the land, and that he is charged with the sacred duty of protecting all good people from the influence of evil, this warrant has been issued for the following persons for high crimes of plotting to inflict suffering, of inciting disease and starvation with black magic, of various acts of perverseness, and, most heinous of all, of _dissidence_. The following dissidents must be arrested on sight, taken dead or alive and, if alive, put to death. _

_May there be mercy for their wicked souls in the next life, for they shall find none in this one!_

There followed a list that described, in less-than-flattering detail, Miroku, Sango, and every one of their former companions. In addition, the list included Kikyou, Kohaku, Kagura, Kaede, Kouga, and Sesshoumaru. The accusations were specified as afflicting curses, practicing black magic, harboring and comforting enemies of the peace, theft, and murder.

Miroku stood staring at the document, his hands shaking, and the words blurring in front of his tears.

"Do you know who is behind this?" Kyotou asked.

"Naraku," Miroku spat out the name.

"He is your enemy?"

"He is everyone's enemy," Miroku said through his clenched teeth. "No matter what this document says. This is just another one of his old tricks. He's the one who is behind all the misery. He's responsible for everything!"

Kyotou peered at him, scratching his chin.

"I've heard you and your wife arguing about him before. If he's so terrible, why were you against pursuing him? You don't strike me as the cowardly type."

"I'm not afraid," Miroku sighed and sat down on the floor. "I'm just tired. Tired of doing the same thing over and over."

"Well, don't do that. Go kill him."

Miroku gave a short laugh, a mirthless sound. It was the only way he could sum up five years of useless suffering.

After some silence, Kyotou spoke again. "Whatever you decide to do about this enemy, we cannot stay here."

"We?" Miroku looked up, surprised.

"Momiji-san is not safe here either. Or Suzi-chan for that matter. I will not send them out to wilderness alone."

"I will look after them."

"There are other reasons," Kyotou said in a short tone that did not invite more questioning. Miroku let it drop.

"We will leave tonight, when everyone else is long asleep. Go home and prepare yourself and your wife."

"Yes, Kyotou-sama," Miroku bowed briefly and left, still clutching the crumpled warrant.

[End of Chapter Twenty]

[Next Chapter: Light Years]


	21. Light Years

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-One: Light Years**

"_With heavy breath, awakened regrets,  
back pages, and days alone that could have been spent  
together, but we were miles apart.  
Every inch between us becomes light years now." – Pearl Jam_

Totosai was still staring after his former hammer, floating away and slowly sinking in the thick, melting power of the lava river.

"Do you think you could get my hammer back?"

Kagura looked at the colossal tool drifting away.

"Umm…be there?" she said, indicating a spot on the bank of the little island.

Nothing happened. The hammer receded from sight.

Totosai sighed. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to make one of those?"

"You should have thought of that before you started swinging it at everybody!" Kagura shouted at him.

The old demon hung his head. "Oh well, guess I'd better get to work. Let me know when you figure it out."

He turned and left her staring at his back in exasperation.

Shippou, having been released from Momo's horns, approached her, rubbing one shoulder while rotating the joint.

"Are you alright?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. So, how did you do that?"

Kagura looked back toward where the hammer had gone. "I really don't know. I just wanted to move it."

"But you can't do it again."

"It does not appear so."

"Well, keep trying," Shippou put a hand on her shoulder. "We can't go anywhere until we get you a weapon."

Inside Totosai's hut he had built a stone surface, shaped like a bowl, that was filled with molten rock. The heat inside was suffocating but, for lack of anything else to do, Shippou endured it to watch the old man at work. All that afternoon, the old demon sat cross-legged before his furnace, alternating between pounding on the steel anvil and blowing on a glowing chunk of iron with his cyclonic lungs.

Meanwhile, Kagura sat outside, trying in vain with sheer will to move an acorn that had blown in from across the river. She had thought that it would be easier to deal with something so small, but she ended up feeling absurd, waving her hand over it and commanding the stupid thing to do something that should have been impossible.

She began to believe that it was impossible. Perhaps there was another explanation for the hammer moving. Could it not have been that the old man had simply dropped it?

As the sun went down, Shippou came out to check on her progress.

"It's no use," she declared in a cross tone. "I don't believe I ever could do it."

"Maybe that's the problem."

She gave him a questioning look.

"Maybe you have to believe you can do it," he explained.

"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed. "If that was all it took, you should be able to grab your own neck and hold yourself at arm's length."

"I don't _believe_ I could do that, Kagura."

"But what if you did? Or what if you convinced some idiot that they could do it?"

"That's an interesting question," he mused. Then he stared off in the distance, murmuring, half to himself. "I wonder if I could get Inuyasha to try that."

Kagura chuckled.

"If believing was all it took," she went on. "I would have lifted myself in the air the first time I tried."

Shippou's eyes widened. "Air!"

"What?"

"That's it! You don't move objects, you move air. You always have!"

Kagura started to say something, then her eyes widened as well. She flicked her wrist over the acorn and the little nut suddenly appeared at a spot a few yards away. Kagura laughed with sheet delight. It was the first time Shippou had seen such an expression on her face. He was surprised to discover that she was really rather pretty.

"I was trying to move the acorn. I only needed to move the air _around _the acorn! Shippou, you're a treasure!"

She threw her arms around his neck, still laughing.

Shippou was not sure precisely why, but he felt a surge of triumph.

"This is where I saw them last," Inuyasha announced.

The sun was rising, and Jinenji calculated that they had traveled some forty or fifty miles from his house. They were now standing in a deep forest near a shallow, lazy river. It had now been a little more than a month since the rains had ended, and though the land was still swampy, brown, and gray, most of the excess water had drained away into swollen lakes and streams.

"What now?" Jinenji's voice rumbled in the dim silence.

Inuyasha had been surprised by the giant's ability to keep up with him. As he always did, Inuyasha traveled at a dead run, his feet barely touching the ground. Jinenji tagged behind him, taking huge strides with his earthquaking feet. He did not bother to jump over or move around most obstacles, he simply walked through them.

Inuyasha sniffed the air.

"Wait here a moment, let me see if I can pick up their trail."

Jinenji nodded and lumbered to the river side, drinking pools of water from his huge hands. Inuyasha, meanwhile, darted around the clearing, sniffing at the air and the ground, and examining the area for tracks.

"I think I got 'em," he declared after five or ten minutes. "They went this way. I think Nazuna said something about having a place nearby."

Inuyasha moved at a slower pace, so that he would not miss any tracks, and Jinenji followed him.

The sun was hanging in the middle of the sky when they encountered stone steps, surrounded by walls choked in vines and weeds.

"I've been here before," Inuyasha murmured.

The climbed the steps until they opened to a stone courtyard. Here and there, small saplings had pushed through the flagstones. There was one square building near the back that was still standing, though it looked more like a cave than a house. Only birds and insects broke the silence. Jinenji thought the place must have been abandoned.

"Nobunaga! Nazuna!" Inuyasha called out without warning, making Jinenji start. "Are you guys here?"

To Jinenji's amazement, two startled human faces peeped out from the dark doorway of the stone building. They looked at each other, than back at the two half-demons. They emerged from their hiding place into the afternoon sun. The man was dressed formally, but not richly, and he wore a sword on his hip. The woman was dressed in the simple, brown kimono of a peasant woman. Her face was young but her eyes were as hard as flint.

"Inuyasha-sama!" the man exclaimed. "I did not expect to see you again."

"You must have come here looking for us," the woman remarked.

Inuyasha looked at them in silence for a moment. Then he waved his hand toward his companion.

"This is Jinenji," he said. "He's a half-demon, like me. He's a much better person than I am, though, so you can trust him."

Jinenji simply bowed his head as Inuyasha introduced the man and woman to him.

"Let's go inside, I have a lot to tell you and I don't want to waste any more time."

Nobunaga and Nazuna appeared startled, but they obeyed.

Despite the autumn chill in the air, there was no fire lit inside the house, and it was pitch black at first. Inuyasha and Jinenji blinked, adjusting their sight to the dimness. There was only one room and, Jinenji could not help but notice, only one bed. He and Inuyasha sat on the floor in front of the central fire pit.

Inuyasha was silent. Nobunaga, Nazuna, and Jinenji were staring at him, and he found he did not know how to proceed. Every sentence that came to him sounding ludicrous in his mind. _They'll think I'm crazy, _he thought.

He jumped to his feet with a cry of dismay when a blazing white light filled the room. He heard the others cry out and he saw them covering their eyes. The light receded as quickly as it had come, and standing in the center of the room was a human woman.

Inuyasha recognized her. It was Midoriko. He drew in a sharp breath, a thousand questions leaping to his lips, but she spoke first.

"Get on with this Inuyasha-sama," she said in an echoing voice. "Time is shorter than you think, and you still have much to do."

He noticed that he could see through her and his blood ran cold.

"What do I have to do?" he demanded. "Why don't you just tell me? I'm not that smart, you know."

She smiled gently. "You have exactly forty-two days before you must stand before me with all your companions, and believe me, that is not as great a time as it sounds."

Inuyasha was dumbfounded. "Companions? Do you mean the ones I traveled with before?"

The priestess did not seem to hear him, and she continued in a whisper.

"Look for me in the west by the sea, in the fields of eternal snow. By the sea, by the sea..."

Her voice faded and he realized he could no longer make out her eyes. She was gone. The room was dark and empty.

Inuyasha took a deep breath.

"That answers that," he said aloud.

Nazuna and Nobunaga had pushed themselves as far against the wall as possible.

"Inuyasha!" Nazuna cried. "What was that?"

"You have just seen the great priestess, Midoriko," he told them, smiling. "You should be honored. I'm sure it was difficult for her, considering she's dead and all."

He sat back down, and put his chin in his hand, his eyes lost in thought.

"I _knew_ she had something to do with all this," he mumbled to himself.

"Inuyasha!" Nazuna cried again.

He looked up at their frightened and confused faces.

"Oh, right. Okay, so here's what I know, or what I've guessed."

He told them everything he had told Jinenji, and more. He explained how his meeting Jinenji was just the last in a series of repetitive events.

"That's why I came back for you two," he said. "I don't think the meetings are random; there has to be a reason."

They were silent. At last, Nazuna spoke. Her eyes were cast downward and her voice left her throat with a deadened weight.

"You are saying that what happened to you that day, it caused the rains?"

"Yes."

"Who did it?" she demanded, her hard eyes hard with a desperate need. "Was it you? Kagome? Naraku?"

"I don't know. I don't see how it was me, but beyond that…" he shrugged.

She peered at him for a moment, then stood and stalked out of the house.

"What's her problem?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga spoke as if to a child. "People suffered because of the rains."

Inuyasha's eyes flashed. "I know that!" he shouted. "It's not my fault!"

"I didn't say it was, and I don't think Nazuna thinks so either, but it's still hard for her."

"Has she said anything about what or who she lost?"

"No," Nobunaga answered, betraying a slight frustration. "She won't say anything."

Totosai insisted that he could do nothing else until he finished fashioning himself a new hammer. Kagura was not upset at the delay. She passed the time testing her new powers. She soon learned that she could fly again by simply lifting the air around her. In fact, she discovered that she could make others fly, if she wanted.

Shippou, after being sent fifty feet straight up in the air without warning, was less enthusiastic about this discovery than Kagura.

"I was only testing it," she told him.

Shippou, once on the ground again, glared at her.

"Maybe now you won't threaten to carry me around by my feet," she suggested.

He stalked away, muttering to himself. Kagura laughed and continued her exercises. At one point, she lifted a small amount of lava from the flow that surrounded the island and concentrated on shaping the glowing blob into an smoothed, spherical shape.

"That's very pretty," Totosai said from behind her.

Kagura jumped and the lava landed with a heavy plop.

"But what good does it do to move things? How will that defend you?"

"Are you going to make me a weapon or not?"

"I dunno," the old man shrugged. "Maybe..."

Suspended in mid-air, above a steaming stream of molten rock, Totosai began to see things from Kagura's perspective.

When he was on firm soil again, he wiped his brow.

"Honestly," he said. "I'm not sure what you need with a weapon. But I guess we can come up with something."

He went into his hut, and forbade either of them to disturb him.

"I have to think," he said. "I'm sure neither of you would understand."

"That has to be one of the most annoying persons I've ever met," Kagura complained.

"Pfft," Shippou scoffed. "You need to get out more, Kagura."

They waited.

And waited.

The sun rose, traced her brilliant path across the blue November sky, and sank again. As is customary with the sun, it all happened again the next day.

And they waited.

Several times, Kagura resolved to storm the hut and shake the old demon by his large, wooly ears, but Shippou always restrained her.

"Just be patient Kagura," he told her. "We can afford to wait if you get a weapon out of it."

"I don't think I need a weapon anymore anyway," she said.

"Oh really? Could you throw demons around like that? Demons that are busy trying to kill you? Large numbers of them at once? Will be you able to kill them or just move them? What about someone like Sesshoumaru or even Naraku? Do you think it would be a simple matter of hopping him to the moon?"

"Hopping?"

"It's the only way I could think to describe what you do."

"Oh."

"Think of Inuyasha's sword," Shippou went on. "It also uses wind."

Kagura remember the weapon that would tear the air into shreds and send the energy back at you.

"What if you came up against something like that?"

Kagura could not think of an answer.

"As I said, Kagura, just be patient."

They were silent. Kagura looked at the young fox demon, struck by the amount of time they had spent together. Four months was probably not a long time to most people, but to her it felt like a lifetime. She understood in a sudden epiphany that to her, it _was _a lifetime, a new lifetime. She realized that she had trouble picturing herself on her own without him. The thought surprised her, but all the more so because she did not regret it.

"What is it?" Shippou asked, catching her gaze.

Too overcome to say anything, Kagura looked away. "Nothing."

It took almost a week, but Totosai emerged at last. He carried a large, canvas sack over one shoulder and in his right hand a tall staff with an evil-looking blade attached to the end. A gauzy piece of cloth was tied under the blade that waved in the wind like a banner. It was blue, almost black, with a sheen that made the exact color hard to discern. He put the bag down and presented the staff to Kagura in almost a formal way.

"Your weapon, my dear," he said with pride.

She took it from him carefully and set the end of it on the ground. She looked up at the blade.

"It's quite heavy," she remarked.

"There's a special reason for the weight, but you'll have to figure that out on your own. But anyway, you'll get used to it," he said. "Inuyasha could not even lift his for a while."

"Oh yes, I remember that," she murmured.

"Listen closely," he said. "The weapon has many possible uses, and it will take you a long time to master all of them, but I can tell you the basics."

He pointed to the unadorned end. "If you aim that end at something, the target will be simply thrown away. It augments your own power, but nothing more. How far and how hard they are thrown depends on you."

"If, however, you use the blade end, your power will be sharpened, so that it will seem as if the blade has stabbed your target, even if it hasn't left your hand. They will most likely be sliced to ribbons."

Kagura swallowed hard. "I see."

"You will have to learn to decide quickly which to use, and also how to direct and discharge the force with rapid precision so that you can fight multiple opponents at once."

"What about this fabric?" she asked. She could not take her eyes from it, the color seemed to absorb her.

"The fabric is interesting," he almost chortled with self-satisfaction. "It's an experiment, you see. I thought that if you could _move _air, maybe you could learn to _change_ air. If you can manipulate air, you could control what people see or hear in the air around them. In effect, the cloth has the ability to create illusions."

"Illusions?" she gasped, tearing her eyes away from the mesmerizing cloth.

"Yes, but you will have to learn to use it."

Kagura looked at the weapon, taking in everything.

"Your reputation is well-earned, old man," she said. Kagura knew how to give a compliment when it was merited.

"What's in the bag?" Shippou asked, nudging it with his foot.

"Be careful with that!" Totosai said sharply.

He squatted in the dirt and opened the bag. From within he brought forth a gleaming, metal ball.

"Your talent has all kinds of possibilities," he said to Kagura, "so I got creative. These are fascinating little beauties. They are filled with small, poisoned daggers. You have only to throw them, and when they land they will explode, sending the points in all directions. Be certain that you have no allies near. The weapon will not differentiate!"

Shippou started to count them. "You can't reuse them, can you?"

"No," Totosai answered. "When they're gone, they're gone. If you can, come back and I'll make more."

"You have done a great deal for us, Totosai," Shippou said, bowing. "I hope we repay you someday."

"Try to get rid of all these critters crawling everywhere, these spider-demons. They're a menace to a poor old man like me. I'm getting too old to be harassed like this, hounded in my dotage."

"I don't think you're that far gone," Shippou laughed. "But we'll do what we can."

"I advise you two to stick around a little bit longer," Totosai suggested. "She should train more before you go off trying to attack Naraku with your teeth."

They talked into the early morning hours, trying to decide what to do. Inuyasha was inclined to return to Edo, reasoning that he would find his friends there. Nobunaga was against this plan.

"In the first place," he said, "from what you've told me that is what your enemy will expect you to do. If you go there, you may find him waiting for you."

"All the more reason!" Inuyasha declared.

"Don't be a child, Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga said. "You're not ready for that confrontation yet. And you can't do it alone. I doubt just the three of us are going to make much difference."

Jinenji agreed to this emphatically.

Inuyasha grumbled but did not argue.

"She said 'look for me in the west, by the sea'," Nobunaga went on. "Do you know anyone who lives by the sea, west of here?"

"No, no one," Inuyasha answered, then he scratched behind one ear. "Well, there _is _someone, but it's a long shot."

"Oh?"

"My half-brother, Sesshoumaru, supposedly lives out west somewhere, and I've been told the house was beside the sea. But that was a long time ago, I have no way of knowing if it's still there."

"That's it then," Nobunaga declared. "That's where we're supposed to go."

"How did you arrive at that conclusion?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Midoriko-sama made a point of saying that to you. I think it means something."

"Seems kind of sketchy to me," Inuyasha said doubtfully.

"Do you have anything better?"

"No, not really," Inuyasha sighed, then shrugged. "I guess we can go in that direction and see what happens. But I warn you, Sesshoumaru is not the sort to invite guests in for tea."

"We'll just have to deal with that when we get there," Nobunaga said.

"What about her?" Jinenji, who had not said much during the debate, asked suddenly, nodding his head out toward the courtyard.

Nobunaga sighed. "I'll go talk to her."

He rose and left.

Inuyasha shrugged and went to a corner, placing himself against the wall and leaning his sword on his shoulder, intending to sleep for a full night for the first time in months.

The next morning they were all ready to leave. Inuyasha did not know what Nobunaga had said to Nazuna and he did not want to know. Her expression was calm, even placid, as she strapped a leather bag to her back and secured her bamboo hat to her chin.

"Which way are we going?" was all she said.

"West," Inuyasha answered, pointing the way.

She immediately set off in that direction, followed by Nobunaga. Jinenji looked at Inuyasha, shrugged, and followed as well.

They could not travel as fast as Inuyasha would have liked, but he resisted the urge to run ahead and leave them behind.

_Can't do that stuff anymore._

That night they camped in the forest. Inuyasha guessed that they were about forty miles southwest of Edo. They ate a meager meal of dried pork and rice, trying to be careful with their rations, and they gathered around a small fire to sleep. Inuyasha did not sleep that night, but sat staring at the multitude of stars above and at the legions of startled eyes that came close enough to gaze at the fire in soft astonishment, but then always receded back into the shadows.

He thought of Kagome. Had Midoriko spoken to her? Was she waiting for him? He realized with surprise that he had not had the paper-monster nightmare since he met Jinenji. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was just another sign that he was on the right track.

_Please, don't blame me 'cause I've tried. I'll be coming home soon to you._

The next day they came out of the thick forests of the mountains and into a valley about ten miles long and, in places, five miles wide. Several villages huddled here and there against a few winding rivers. The villages were filling up again with the people who had fled into the hills during the rains. Still, want and misery were everywhere. The air was heavy with the stench of filth and disease. Inuyasha grew nervous.

They were walking along the banks of one river, trying to find a place shallow enough to cross, when sudden shouts and the thudding of many feet were heard behind them. Inuyasha turned and saw that they were surrounded by a dozen shabby men and, by the looks of their clubs and rusty knives, they were not interested in chatting about the weather.

"Leave your food," one man, a heavy-set character with only one eye, said. "And the woman, and you can leave."

Nobunaga drew his weapon without hesitation. Inuyasha put his hand on his sword.

"I don't want to kill you," he said. "Get lost."

The men snickered and advanced on them.

Jinenji, who had trailed behind some distance, caught up with them. The men took one startled looked at him and bolted like rabbits into the woods.

"Where've you been?" Inuyasha demanded.

Jinenji did not appear to understand what had happened. With a puzzled expression on his long face, he brought forth a fistful of flowers, pitiful little daisies that grew alongside the river.

"I thought they might cheer her up," he said. "They're not much, but all I could find."

He offered the bouquet to Nazuna. She stared at him in disbelief, then a sudden smile broke across her face.

"Thank you, Jinenji-san," she said with a little bow, taking the gift.

"You are welcome," he rumbled.

Inuyasha stared at them, then threw up his hands and continued down the river banks.

"You're not trying to steal my girl, are you Jinenji-san," Nobunaga teased the half-demon as they walked. Nazuna blushed.

"No, no," the gentle giant said with a shy smile. "I just don't like to see women unhappy, especially human women. My mother was a human, you know."

"Oh really?" Nazuna asked. "What was she like?"

The three of them continue to chat as they strolled along, while Inuyasha made a valiant effort not to scream at them to pick up the pace. He busied himself looking for shallow places in the river. Finally, he interrupted them.

"We can cross here," he announced.

Startled, they looked up as if they had forgotten he was there. They looked out at the river. The stream had widened and there was a small island in the middle of it. They could see that the river on this side was shallow and ran quickly over many flat, gray rocks.

"What's it like on the other side of that island though?" Nazuna asked.

"I don't think it's deep," Inuyasha answered. "But I can carry you if need be. I want to cover more ground going south today."

As they crossed the stream they did not talk, concentrating instead on staying on the rocks, made slick by the water and algae.

Nobunaga swore under his breath.

"What's the matter?" Inuyasha called back.

"Nothing," the young samurai answered. "Almost fell."

Inuyasha shrugged and kept going. "You could use a bath anyway."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"You don't exactly smell like a meadow in springtime, you know," Nobunaga accused. "There's a reason that none of these insects are landing on you. I'm just glad the wind is not blowing from your direction."

"Right," Inuyasha agreed. "It's blowing your stink right up my nose."

"I might have a few things with me that you could put up your nose, Inuyasha-sama."

Jinenji and Nazuna decided not to contribute to the discussion.

Kagura and Shippou stayed with Totosai for ten days, during which time they both worked on perfecting their attack and defense abilities. On occasion, Totosai would assist them by offering himself as a sparring partner or even a target.

One day, he took them across the lava river to the forest, looking for new targets.

"I don't sense any of those spider-demons," Shippou said.

"No, but then you wouldn't," Totosai answered.

"Why is that?"

"Didn't you say you fought them before?" Totosai asked.

"Yeah."

"And you didn't notice that they didn't have a demonic sense, or even a smell?"

Shippou thought about it. "I guess I had too much on my mind," he said. "But, how can something have no smell?"

"I don't know. I only know that they don't."

The old man's eyes went distant and they scanned the area.

"Ah!" he said at last. "There's a demon boar over yonder. A big one too. I'll go flush him out in your direction."

"And then what?" Kagura demanded.

"That's up to you," he shrugged. "But I wouldn't let him ground me into mincemeat. It's your body though."

Shippou climbed a tree.

"Where are you going?" Kagura called to him.

"This is your exercise," he said. "I'll be here if you get into trouble."

Kagura muttered a few choice phrases under her breath and put both hands firmly on her weapon. She began to hear trampling sounds in the distance. Within a minute or two, the huge, shaggy beast came roaring into the clearing, eyes maddened with rage. He spent some time gouging an unoffending tree with his alarming tusks before he turned glaring at Kagura.

"Well come on then, you ugly brute," she said, trying not to think about her trembling legs.

_I'm just out of practice,_ she thought, _not used to fighting anymore._

With a shrieking squeal, the monster charged at her like an avalanche. Kagura leveled her weapon and directed all her thought into casting the monster back.

It worked. The boar was thrown almost a hundred yards and into a tree. It lay on the ground, twitching.

Kagura was thinking that the whole business was finished, when the boar got to its feet again, screaming.

"Kagura," Shippou called down to her, "don't throw it, kill it! It won't stop coming at you."

The trouble was, the piercing attack of her staff covered a much smaller area.

"What if I miss?" she shouted.

"I wouldn't."

Great. Very helpful.

The nasty brute charged again, even more ferociously than before. This time, Kagura leveled the blade end of her weapon at the charging monster, trying to aim for its chest. She commanded the air to move, and felt the energy blaze forward like lightening.

Nothing happened. The beast kept charging.

"Shit!" she managed to say, before it collided with her. The blade, still held low, sank into its chest with a sickening, sawing crunch. A fountain of blood gushed from the wound and foamed in the boar's mouth.

"Kagura!" she heard Shippou shout. "Get out of the way!".

But the boar was thrashing in the mud and she could not get from underneath him. She was caught with a smart rap on the temple by her own weapon and then the boar's tusk smashed into her ribs. She was thrown into the air.

When she regained consciousness, she was lying on a pile of straw mats in Totosai's hut. Shippou and Totosai were sitting on the ground near his furnace. The growing night was pressing in from edges of the shades that covered the door and window.

"She's a demon after all," Totosai was saying. "She'll be fine."

"You take too many chances, Totosai," Shippou replied. "I've gone through a lot to keep her alive, not to have her killed by an overgrown swine."

Kagura groaned. She felt like she had been sitting out in the rain, and it had been raining boulders.

Shippou came to hover over her. "Are you okay?"

"What is that smell?" she asked, rubbing her sandy eyes.

"Pig," Shippou answered. He went back to the fire, stuck in a long knife, and brought out a hunk of steaming pork.

"Want some?"

"What I don't get is," Totosai said from where he was sitting, "why you decided to spear him with the blade instead of your powers. And I really don't understand why you thought you could break his tusks with your ribs."

In an instant Kagura was fully awake. She leapt to her feet, grabbed a staff that had been left leaning in a corner, and advanced upon the old demon with grim resolution.

Shippou sat on the floor and continued to gulp down roasted pork, ignoring the curses and cries for help that came from behind him as Kagura proceeded to give Totosai the thrashing of his life.

They pressed on through the populated valley, but Inuyasha insisted that they avoid the villages.

"Half-demons like Jinenji and me are seldom welcome even in good times," he said. "Now's not the time to test the limits of peasant hospitality."

On a few occasions, Nobunaga would go into the settlements alone, hoping to find either food or information. Food was hard to come by, most believing that what food they had was worth more to them than anything Nobunaga could trade for it. Information was easy, however. Nobunaga returned one evening with a rolled up parchment and a worried frown.

He offered the scroll to Inuyasha.

"What is it?"

"Something you should see," Nobunaga answered.

Inuyasha unrolled the document and glanced at it. He scoffed. "I can't read, Nobunaga."

"Oh," the young man said, taking it back. "I'll read it for you then."

_**Warrant**_

_Being that the Lord Henshin has sought to restore peace and prosperity to the land, and that he is charged with the sacred duty of protecting all good people from the influence of evil, this warrant has been issued for the following persons for high crimes of plotting to inflict suffering, of inciting disease and starvation with black magic, of various acts of perverseness, and, most heinous of all, of _dissidence_. The following dissidents must be arrested on sight, taken dead or alive and, if alive, put to death. _

He went on to read detailed descriptions of just about everyone Inuyasha knew on this earth. The dog demon felt a secret thrill when he heard Kikyou's name.

"This is good news," he said when Nobunaga was finished.

Nobunaga and the others stared at him in amazement.

"How can this be good?" Nazuna demanded.

"This warrant, or whatever you call it, definitely came from Naraku. There's not a soul on here who's not his bitterest enemy. I don't know if Henshin is Naraku in disguise or is a puppet of Naraku, but it doesn't matter. If Naraku is hunting these people, then he has reason to believe that they are still alive, and I guess he would know if anybody did."

"I thought you already believed that they were alive," she said.

"I did, but this is more proof."

"These are some pretty serious accusations, Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga said. "He all but accuses you of causing the rains and those spider-demons and every other unfortunate thing."

"This is evidence, I think," Jinenji said in his deep voice, "that Naraku himself is behind all these things. He aims to deflect blame."

"Exactly what I was thinking, Jinenji," Inuyasha replied. His expression grew thoughtful. "I _am _worried about Kaede though."

"This Sesshoumaru, this is the brother we're going to see?" Nobunaga asked.

"Right, and if anyone is fool enough to go after that guy because of this warrant, it'll be their swan song."

By the next morning, they had passed through the valley and reentered the mountains, following a common road. The weather was turning bitter cold and though the sun was unclouded, its light was wan and pale. Nobunaga and Nazuna wrapped themselves in fur pelts, tied with leather twine, and pressed on grimly. That evening, when they made camp, Inuyasha went off into the forest alone and returned some time later with a dead deer draped over his shoulders.

"Nobunaga and Nazuna can't be expected to walk to the ends of the earth on rice and water alone," he said.

He borrowed a large knife from Jinenji and began butchering the deer with expert precision.

Nazuna looked away with a shudder.

"Let's go for a walk," Nobunaga suggested.

Nazuna nodded and they walked hand in hand into the forest.

"You've been walking all day!" Inuyasha shouted after them.

They ignored him.

"Don't go too far!" he called, and then turned back to his deer, shaking his head.

Jinenji watched as the two disappeared into the shadows. "Are they married?" he asked.

"I don't see how," Inuyasha answered, not taking his eyes off his butchery. "They only met a couple of weeks ago."

Jinenji looked puzzled.

"Don't even worry about it, Jinenji," Inuyasha told him. "If they want to go off alone to entertain each other, it's none of our business."

Jinenji nodded and, without changing expression, began gnawing on a piece of bone.

The next morning, before sunrise, Inuyasha received a rude awakening. A sting and an itch told him that something small was taking its lunch from his nose. Without opening his eyes, he swatted at it. This was met with a groan and a sigh, following by repeated sobbing.

"Oh Inuyasha-sama! Inuyasha-sama!" a tiny voice blubbered. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"What is that?" Nobunaga exclaimed, coming awake and fumbling for his sword.

"Relax," Inuyasha said, peering down at the emotional flea on his hand. "It's just Myouga."

"Oh!" the little demon flea continued to bawl. "Inuyasha-sama!"

"Stop that!" Inuyasha snapped. "I'm fine. Have you seen any of the others?"

Myouga gulped down his tears. "No. I only just found out what happened. I was at the Plateau yesterday, and I put it together. I thought you were dead!"

He wailed again and pressed his face into Inuyasha's thumb.

"I said stop it," Inuyasha growled. Then he thought of something. "The Plateau? You mean it's near?"

Myouga nodded. "Just beyond this next mountain."

Inuyasha looked at Nobunaga. "Wake everyone up," he said. "We're leaving."

Nazuna was a bit surly about being jostled awake before sunrise, but she was able to be civil after she had eaten and washed her face and hands in the freezing stream. They followed Inuyasha, who followed the directions of his miniature retainer. It was almost noon when they came upon it.

"Great Hachiman!" Nobunaga swore.

Almost six months had passed since that terrible day. To Inuyasha it felt like years and on the other side of the moon. Seeing it did not alter this feeling. The area was a sudden clearing in the surrounding forest. All the trees lay in tangled and gnarled heaps. The greater ones had torn out huge chunks of the earth in their deaths, and these depressions were overrun with weeds and ferns.

"What is this?" Nazuna asked in an awed whisper, looking around.

Inuyasha sighed. "This is where it happened. This is where part of me died."

Totosai was nothing if not a glutton, and after stuffing himself silly with roast pork, he forgave Kagura almost before his contusions and bruises healed.

"I don't know why it didn't work," he told her. "You probably just missed. You have to work on your aim."

"I have pretty good aim for old geezer heads," she said ominously.

Totosai ducked behind Shippou for protection.

They cured some of the pork, and they packed this tough meet in a bag along with a couple of blankets and water jugs.

"It's time we got moving again," Shippou said to the demon sword smith. "I'll come back with Inuyasha if I can find him, or send word to you if necessary."

"Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself," Totosai answered.

"Goodbye then," Shippou said simply. He transformed into the giant form of his hawk and he and Kagura took to the air and headed south.

"Still going to the Hyouden, I guess?" Kagura asked.

"Yep."

Kagura sighed but decided not to argue.

They had traveled at a good speed, keeping straight south, for less than an hour before they ran into Tsuchigumo. The saw the wiry, spindle-limbed demons moving voraciously through a valley.

"Time to practice your aim," Shippou called to Kagura, who was flanking him.

She nodded. "Be careful."

They plummeted down on the heads of the monsters without warning. It seemed that they had been simply moving from place to place and were not prepared for a fight. Shippou picked up several of them at once, soared back into the air, and dropped them to their deaths. Kagura's wind cut huge swathes through them, knocking them about into trees and into each other. By this time they began to attempt some counterattack, but without effect. They had, until this point, focused their violence on humans, and these powerful attacks from the air were quite beyond their experience.

Kagura realized that she did not even need to aim. There were so many of them that she could just send her slicing air attack forward in their general direction and she was almost guaranteed to maim and kill large numbers of them at once. Shippou continued tossing them through the air, or simply crushing them in his talons. Several of them attempted to spear him as he descended, but it was difficult to concentrate on their aim while Kagura continued to cut off heads and arms.

Before long, they had decimated this group of Tsuchigumo. Shippou landed and changed back to his normal shape, panting and looking about with wild eyes.

"That was exciting," he grinned at Kagura when she joined him.

"I thought so," she purred, giving her kwan dao a loving stroke.

"Want to go find more?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she laughed, already ascending again.

This went on a for a few days as the pair pressed on southward, cutting a path through swarms of the crawling monsters. They seldom stopped to rest and could never sleep in such a hostile country. Even Shippou began to show signs of exhaustion.

November gave way to December without anyone noticing. The cold began to wear on Shippou and Kagura, as they expended too much of their energy battling to keep themselves warm. The noon sun hung pale and weak in the sky, obscured now and then by smoke from burning forests and villages. Shippou returned to his normal shape and met Kagura near a bare, rocky knoll among the hills.

"This is ridiculous!" he vented. "How many of these damn things can there be?"

Kagura sat on the edge of large outcrop of rock, rubbing her fingers against her scalp, tussling her hair. The joy of the kill had quickly lost its luster. She was so exhausted that she ached all over, and the cold clung to her fingers and toes with an iron grip.

"We need to rest," she said. "You sleep first and I'll keep watch."

Shippou protested, but Kagura would not relent. At last too tired to resist, he found a spot that was somewhat sheltered from the wind by a large boulder, crawled into a fetal position, and fell asleep. Kagura let him sleep for about four hours before taking her turn. He sat beside her, his chin resting on his knees, listening to her gentle breathing and fighting to keep his eyes open.

The waning moon was hanging low over the horizon when Shippou awoke with a violent twitch. He leapt to his feet.

"Damnit! Stupid!" he cursed himself.

Kagura only teased him a little when she learned that they had both slept like babies out in the open. "Oh well, at least we got plenty of rest."

It was true that they both felt much better, stronger and warmer.

They nibbled on some of their store of food and were about to take to the sky again when they heard shouts of dismay and screams of terror coming from the forest to their western side. They hurried into the air, Shippou transforming even has he ran. It only took them a few minutes to come to a village, one of the few they had seen intact. Shippou looked down and could see that the men had herded the women and children into the center of the village and were preparing themselves for a last stand against the enemy. They were encircled by Tsuchigumo, who stood stamping and beating their chests with their fists, working themselves into a frenzy.

"Kagura!" Shippou called. "Be careful of the villagers!"

Then he let out a scream that pierced the cold night. The Tsuchigumo looked up in dismay as his shadow blocked the moon and stars. Many never knew what hit them. As others watched their comrades being torn and smashed by the giant bird, Kagura came down on them like a swift arrow, and began throwing large numbers of them away from the village. The villagers drew back from the struggle, taken by surprise by the viciousness of this new attack, and watching in amazement as their former assailants were torn to pieces. Some of the Tsuchigumo managed to get away, and Shippou and Kagura did not bother to pursue them. They landed and approached the terrified villagers.

"Why do they cringe from us?" Kagura asked him. "Don't they see we just saved them?"

"As far as they know we saved them so we can eat them ourselves. The world is a scary place for people who are powerless, Kagura."

Shippou approached the huddle of humans, extending his hands with palms upraised.

"We will not hurt you," he told them. "We are friends of humans. We have come to save you."

The men, still forming a thick blockade in front of the women and children, looked at each other warily.

"It's a fox demon," one of the men said. "They're tricksters. You can't trust them."

Shippou let his hands drop.

"Please," he said. "Let me help you."

"You can help us by leaving us alone!" another of the men declared. The others murmured their agreement.

"Come on, Shippou," Kagura said angrily. "They don't want us here."

"No!" Shippou said, then turned back to the humans. "The Tsuchigumo will be back. There are more of them then there are stars. We must all work together to resist them! They are not just _your_ enemy."

The men looked at each other, and this time Shippou could see by some of their faces that he was getting through to some of them. Then, one of their number came forward alone. He was thick-bodied, with a long braid of black hair hanging from his crown.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"I am called Shippou, and this is my friend, Kagura," Shippou indicated to her that they should both bow. "Perhaps you have heard of Inuyasha, or Kagome, or Kikyou?"

"If you mean Kikyou, the priestess of Edo, we have heard of her. But she is dead."

"We were her friends nonetheless," Shippou lied glibly. "As we are friends to all humans. What can I do to make you believe me?"

"What do you know of these monsters?"

Shippou realized he did not actually know all that much, but he guessed quite a bit, and for now, that would have to do.

"There is a great demon, the most powerful, the most perfidious ever known, named Naraku. He aims to enslave all living things. His power has grown so great because he has possession of the Shikon no Tama. He has created these monsters. He is also the one who caused the rains."

"How did he do that?" the leader demanded suspiciously.

"His enormity knows no limits," Shippou swept on, trying to gloss over a number of pesky details.

"But you say he is a demon, like you."

"There are many wicked humans in the world, are there not? Do you claim kinship with them, just because they are human?"

The man considered this. "It may be as you say. But what proof do we have of your good faith?"

"What better options do you have? What do you have to lose?" Shippou countered. "He is demon, and you know you will never defeat him on your own, not if the gods had made you three times greater than you are."

There was a murmur amongst the men, and Shippou feared he had pushed them too far.

"If we agreed with you, what then?" the leader persisted. "Do you have a plan?"

"We must gather all men, human and demon, who can fight."

"And then what? What will we do with our women and children in the meantime? Leave them to fend for themselves?"

"No," Shippou answered firmly. "We will have to take them with us."

There was an outbreak of dismay and protest.

"As you say," Shippou shouted over the clamor, "there is no other way. We will have to keep together."

The leader was silent for a moment, and then he went back into the throng. They conferred among themselves for some time, throwing furtive glances in the direction of the two demons. Shippou could feel the air around Kagura bristling with suppressed indignation. She plainly did not care for waiting on word from humans. Shippou saw that some prejudices had been inherited after all, and would have to be corrected.

While he waited, he could not help but remember how many times Kagome or Miroku had been obliged to persuade reluctant rural peasants that they were friendly. Not for the first or the last time, he wished they were here, that he did not have to be the one to take on all burden himself. But those days, his youth, seemed so far away now, years away and on the other side of the stars.

"You are right."

Shippou was jerked back to reality. He saw that the leader was standing in front of him.

"My lord?"

"You are right," he repeated. "We have nothing to lose. To tell you the truth, we are without homes, without food, and without hope."

Shippou gave a slight bow and indicated, with a rib-gouging thrust of his elbow, that Kagura should do the same.

"I give you my word that I will improve your circumstances."

Some of the villagers went back to their ruined huts to gather what provisions and weapons they could salvage. The rest made other preparations to leave.

"What happened to going to Sesshoumaru's?" Kagura asked.

"We'll get there, eventually," he answered. "This is more important right now."

"Do you really believe all that stuff you told him, about Naraku?"

"More or less."

Kagura looked over at the villagers with obvious distaste.

"Get used to it," he told her. "We'll end up leading a lot of them before this is done."

Kagura shook her head. "I sure hope you know what you're doing."

[End of Chapter Twenty-One]

[Next chapter: Where the Streets Have No Name]


	22. Where the Streets Have No Name

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Where the Streets Have No Name**

"_I want to feel sunlight on my face.  
I see the dust cloud disappear,  
without a trace.  
I want to take shelter from the poison rain,  
Where the streets have no name." – U2_

Shippou and Kagura kept up their strength through the long and brutal winter by drawing on the other's resilient resolve. When one began to weaken under the weight of endless violence, the other propped that one up with the memory of loss. When one shrank from the shadow of death, the other whispered of past triumphs. In this way, they kept from falling over the edge of resistance.

The sun gave no warmth, and the bitter wind that scoured the hills was unchecked by the bare and sickened trees. The forests and fields, robbed of summer, flooded in fetid swamps, then abused by arid wind, were worn and threadbare. In spite of this, or maybe because of it, Shippou and Kagura had gathered something of an army; ragged, desolate people, ravaged by hunger and fevers. The entire population traveled with them and the women, children, and elderly remained in the furthermost flanks whenever they engaged the enemy. The men fought with axes, swords, knives, arrows, and all too often with implements that had been meant for the farm but had long, oh so long, been useless. When Shippou saw them charging into the teeth of the monsters, with their rusty sickles and bleeding feet, he dared never mention his cold-afflicted fingers.

All day long they fought alongside with these humans, Shippou tearing the Tsuchigumo apart with his iron beak and steel talons and Kagura rending them into a million pieces with her ferocious wind. Still, their numbers seemed undiminished, and the task appeared hopeless and endless. Shippou changed form so often, from adolescent fox demon to titanic sized hawk, that he found himself thinking more like the bird and less like himself. Often he would check his feet and hands, uncertain for a moment in which shape he resided. Kagura sometimes had to remind Shippou to resume his normal shape at night when, exhausted, he and Kagura searched for wood to keep their comrades warm.

They fought and slaughtered. They ate and shared. They laughed under the stars. They gathered more to them. They buried and mourned.

The year wore away.

They sat beside their own little fire one night while most of the humans slept, though they could hear that some were still celebrating the day's victories. Kagura sat with her feet near the fire, holding her toes and looking up at the crystal stars. Shippou sat with a large pelt thrown across his shoulders, a gift from one of the women. He stared into the flames, letting his drowsiness overtake him. It seemed to him that he could hear Kagome singing to him in a soft, distant voice.

"_And when we're older, and full of cancer_

_It doesn't matter now, come on get happy_

_Because nothing lasts forever,_

_But I will always love you." _

"Shippou, what is love?"

His eyes snapped open and he turned to stare at his one time enemy, who was now his almost constant companion. The fur blanket slid from his shoulders.

"What?" he asked, blinking at her.

"Love, what is it?"

"It's…I mean, that's…you can't just ask something like that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's complicated," with the foolish hope that this would end the conversation, he arranged his blanket again, determined to resume dozing.

Kagura furrowed her flawless forehead. "It is? It doesn't seem so."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everybody makes such a big deal about it. They talk about it so much. It seems to me they know very well what it is."

"Of course they do!"

"Then why won't you tell me?" she stamped her little feet.

"It's not that I won't, Kagura."

He sighed, and then straightened his shoulders.

"People know what it is when they see it, when they feel it, but you can't describe it. It just…_is_."

"Do I…would I know it?"

"I don't know," he smiled to himself, a soft smile hidden under the shadow of his wild hair. "I hope so."

"Am I supposed to love you?"

Shippou winced, and prayed devoutly that some hypnotic deity of sleep would come along and clock Kagura over the head. He opened his eyes and saw that she was staring at him intently and that his supplications had all been in vain.

_Nothing new about that._

"I can't answer that," he faltered.

"Do you love me?"

Good heavens and every demon in hell, why wouldn't she just go to sleep?

A lie was out of the question, and avoidance was almost as impossible. More than a little desperate, he looked up. The stars looked the same as always.

Sometimes it was hard to believe what his life had become. Up there the stars went on shining as if nothing had changed. But he wasn't with Kagome and Inuyasha anymore. His friends were gone, long gone, and he may never see them again. The only real friend he had was this demoness, who looked to him now for everything.

Who had been created by the very monster that had destroyed his life.

"I promise I will answer you someday," he said at last. "But not tonight."

"As you wish," she shrugged. "I'm tired. Let's go to sleep."

But even after Kagura's soft breathing told him she had drifted off, Shippou did not sleep. He continued gazing at the stars.

_Is she up there with you?_

They should at least give him a sign.

_You _owe _me that much._

The stars did not answer.

He waited for it for a long time; long after the rains had ended. The land was becoming as dry and bare as a bone on a windy beach, and still he waited. The winter fell like a hammer, and night after night came without a hint of cloud, and still he waited.

_Any day now_, he thought.

At any moment, soon, they will arrive, and we will begin it all over again.

As he waited, he collected his time, employed his energy, and arranged his future. Naraku never squandered one drop of anything.

The monsters that were terrorizing the countryside had their origins before the Plateau, and even as he recovered from that disaster he continued that work, almost complete by the time he sent Kanna to spy on his enemies and long before he sent Botsuraku to the village Edo.

Inside him a power struggled for dominion, though he knew it not, dominion over the forces that opposed it, the forces that were pushing and lashing Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, and countless others like leaves through the wind.

The force inside of Naraku had an easier task. It did not need to manage an army of pawns that were currently scattered across the wilderness. It did not need to torture Naraku into submission. Naraku readily obeyed its every desire. This was because what was expected of Naraku came to him quite naturally anyway. He believed that every plot, plan, and impetus was his own; that every creation he hatched was as original as the universe itself. As far as his ethereal and unseen master was concerned, long may it be so.

Naraku sat on a simple mat in a bare room in a rather modest house. He had never desired luxuries and, at the present time, his appearance of sparse stoicism encouraged his cause with his human subjects. The little insects were racked with deprivation brought on by the rains and the disintegration they had caused, to say nothing of the ravages of the Tsuchigumo. Naraku's ears were besieged with an endless stream of prayers and supplications that had droned into a tiresome buzzing in his ears.

His sharp hearing told him that bare feet were shuffling down the hall to his door. He checked the mirror again, the little piece of reflective glass that he kept hidden in his hand. Seeing that his face was still arranged as desired, he withdrew the shard back into his flesh and assumed an air of long suffering nobility and patience.

A diffident servant entered the room and kneeled.

"My lord, messengers have returned."

"All of them, Hari-kun?" Naraku gave him a toothy smile and his voice was honey sweet.

"No, Henshin-sama, not all."

"Please send in the ones that have returned, and prepare additional warrants to be sent out. We must be sure to warn all good folk, do you not agree?"

"Yes, Henshin-sama," Hari bowed so low he nearly went through the floor. When he sat up again his eyes were full of love and trust.

"Would my lord care for something to eat?"

A vision blurred before Naraku's eyes for a moment, of blood and bone, flesh and sinew. He was almost weak with hunger, but he distracted himself with the amusing thought of this peasant's reaction to a genuine request.

_Yes, please bring me a farmer. Followed directly with a maiden. Then I will finish with a delicacy, an infant perhaps? Yes, I think so._

"There are too many who are going to sleep hungry tonight, my son," he said instead. "I will fast."

The man looked as though he would argue, but then he apparently thought better of it and he bowed again.

"Yes, my lord."

"Yuka!" Souta's voice rang out across the courtyard. "Get away from there!"

Yuka turned and looked up at the window to Kagome's room, and saw Souta leaning out and waving his arms. Still influenced by the cloud of suspicion, created by all the dodged or unanswered questions, she misinterpreted his anxiety.

What is in the wellhouse?

Is…is Kagome in there? Is it just her body in there, still bound and gagged, or hanging from the rafters? Will it be a skeleton? A bag of bones? Or maybe she was still alive but locked inside, kept apart and secret like the rich man's wife in that famous British book.

Vague and foggy thoughts entered her head.

_I guess the shrine doesn't have an attic._

Higurashi, with a heavy pack strapped to her shoulders and around her waist, had come out into the yard with Ayumi and Eri. When they saw Yuka they stopped, and Ayumi and Eri exchanged glances.

Higurashi froze when she saw the lock on the door.

"What?" she started to move toward it.

The heavy wooden door began to creak and rattle.

Yuka was transfixed. This development was clear proof of her wildest theories and most terrible fears. She took slow but deliberate steps toward the door, hand outreached.

_But the lock…who will break the lock?_

What was this light coming from the other side? A red, unnatural glow oozed through the old wooden door and frame. The commotion of the rattle wood grew louder and more frenzied.

"Yuka-chan…" Eri's nervous voice came from behind her.

Then it became quiet, and still, and Yuka began to doubt that the door had moved at all. Perhaps it had only been the wind. She even began to turn away.

She did not realize that she had been thrown through the air until she collided with Eri and Ayumi. The three of them fell together in a terrified heap. Yuka tried to get to her feet, but the world reeled and she hit her knees on the courtyard dirt instead, her hands cradling her head. She took a hand away and saw that she was bleeding somewhere. She heard screaming, but it sounded muffled or far away, as though her head was under water. Jagged pieces of wood littered the ground. Someone was pulling on her. Yuka looked up and saw that it was Eri. Her old friend was hysterical, pulling and sobbing and screaming, but Yuka could understand nothing.

_Maybe it was a gas leak. Was there a tank in there?_ Her fuzzy thoughts tried to repair the scene.

Yuka had been knocked nearly senseless, and she did not then know what her friends and Higurashi and Souta already knew. She had not seen, nor understood, that a titanic monster had come through the door with the force of a dozen bulls. It was red, and covered with a shaggy coat of black, coarse hair. It could not be human. Not only was it eight or nine feet tall, but its powerful, tree-trunk arms reached almost to its knees, and its face was grotesquely twisted, like the stone ogres that sometimes adorned temples.

Souta came screaming out of the kitchen door. Yuka heard Higurashi shout for him to run away before she was pulled and dragged across the ground. She saw that she and the other girls had been gathered in a net. They were terrified, but they were senseless and panicked and it was not difficult for the monster to catch them.

Souta was wielding some kind of hooked, metal implement.

"Souta!" Higurashi screamed. "Please run!"

Yuka was not sure if Souta ignored his mother or did not hear her. They were all being dragged away from the house, towards the well.

"He means to take us through," she heard Higurashi whisper in a choked sob.

Yuka heard the monster roar. Souta had hooked or stabbed it in the back. It reached around and plucked out the weapon like removing a splinter. The monster swung one heavy hand through the air and sent Souta flying into the Goshinboku. He landed on the ground in a crumpled heap and did not rise again.

"Souta!" Higurashi's wail was desperate and pitiful.

By now, Yuka could see what was dragging them away, but she still could not comprehend it, and some important part of her mind was still unreachable by fear. She was not aware of how her frenzied limbs struggled, dug, clawed, and resisted on their own.

_Is this real? _

The sun was extinguished; they had entered the well house. They were towed over the splintered remains of the door. Yuka felt herself being lifted into the air. She was smashed into one of the girls, her face crushed into hair, and she could scarcely breath. The girls were screaming, but she did not think she was screaming. The world blurred into black, then pink, and she felt a sensation like reaching the top of a rollercoaster.

Then there was daylight again.

_No, this cannot be real._

She heard Higurashi sob.

"I always knew it would come to this."

When word reached Kouga that Ayame the Sacred Iris had gone missing and was presumed dead, a cold knot formed in his insides that would never be undone in his lifetime.

They said that her clan of wolf demons had been especially afflicted by the rains and by the mysterious spider monsters that came from the north and east. They said that Ayame had resolved to find the source of their suffering and to defeat it, if possible. She gave her kin instructions to merge with the southern clans, and then she departed alone, never to be seen again.

The weight of dread that burdened Kouga did not come from the mere fact of her death. There had been more death and misery in the last few months than he had ever thought to see in his lifetime and, in truth, he envied her. His sorrow came from his own culpability.

She should not have gone alone. She should not have been left alone, with all that weight on her shoulders. She should not have felt it necessary to stand alone.

He should not have left her alone.

At first he tried to ignore his sense of guilt, but an event took place that very night that made denial forever impossible.

He stood on the banks of a small mountain stream at twilight and saw a vague figure standing on the surface of water, some three or four feet away from him. When he peered closer, he saw that it was a woman covered in mud.

No, not a woman, and it was not mud. It was a demoness; it was Ayame. Her red hair was blackened with blood and the irises of her veil were crushed and wilted. She held out a mangled hand to him with pitiful supplication. He braced himself to hear the dreadful sound of a dead voice, but he saw that, even in death, she could not speak because her throat was torn and her chest was crushed.

His own throat was choked. He stood stricken numb and mute. The foggy figure began to fade into the shadows of the growing night.

"Wait!" he broke out. "Don't go!"

"Ayame! I'm sorry!"

Kouga's stomach twisted and his head swam. He reeled and stumbled back into the forest, collapsing on a bed of scrubby moss, and sat with his head between his knees, hitting the ground again and again with weak fists. His body rocked and trembled. A cruel tempest grew from the bottom of his stomach.

_You're to blame!_

In his mind's eye he saw Naraku's face first, as he always did.

If only he had been strong enough to defeat that monster years ago!

Naraku's face dimmed and faded and instead he saw Inuyasha's white hair and yellow eyes.

_Why didn't you do it? You worthless bastard!_

Inevitably, Inuyasha reminded him of Kagome, and he recalled her sweet face and laughing blue eyes, the light scent of her jet-black hair.

_If only you never came here. None of this would have happened! I would have married Ayame. I would have!_

On the edge of his awareness he heard a choking sound break free from his chest.

_It's not my fault! You're to blame! You're responsible for everything!_

Towering and unrestrained, the power tore through his throat without mercy and rang out over the forest, a wail of rage and despair.

The circumstances of their exodus could not have been much worse. The day had provided no warmth, and the night air bit their faces and grasped their hands and feet with iron claws. After they ascended the hill, they paused to look back behind the thick cedar trees and down at the soft glow of huts lit by cooking fires, inviting and deceitful. Miroku looked up and saw that there was no moon. It had been as slim as a willow branch the night before, and would not appear at all tonight.

_I wonder where he is._

Miroku stood next to Sango, holding her hand as tight as he could without hurting her, breathing in the stony night air, perfumed with earth, fungus, and cedar.

"Where are we going from here?" she whispered to him. His eyes returned to her face.

She was beautiful; he had always thought so, but now he felt himself realize it as a new understanding. She was more beautiful than any woman he had ever known. It was a fierce, relentless beauty. Her wealth of lustrous hair was an ensnaring net, soft but inescapable. Her dark eyes and sharp features where edged like knives. The inexplicable notion of Sango the Slayer, destroyer of men's souls, gave rise to the unheralded idea that he would rather that she, and only she, kill him, than to succumb in the end to the wind tunnel. He toyed with the idea of asking the favor of her.

"Miroku?" she squeezed his hand. "What's the matter with you?"

"No, it's nothing," he whispered back. "I'm not sure where, but we go together."

She squeezed his hand again.

The only sound was the wind sulking in the fir trees. He caught snatches of whispered words between Suzi and Momiji, or between Momiji and Kyotou, but he did not hear what they said.

A confused clamor grew from a point somewhere in the village and disturbed the calm of the midnight hour. The refugees looked down and saw the glow of torches moving from one end of the village to the other. They could hear the disorder of numerous voices shouting.

"They're going toward our house, Momiji-sama!" Suzi cried out.

"Hush child!" Momiji said to her sharply.

There seemed to be a brief moment of bewilderment when the mob searched the tiny hut only to find it empty. That did not stop them from setting flames to it.

"It looks like we left just in time," Kyotou commented grimly.

"I can't believe they would do this," Momiji whispered.

"We should keep moving," Miroku urged them. "Mobs like that often do not stop until they get their fill of blood."

"But where are we going to go?" Sango asked again. Miroku reminded himself that Sango was persistent and did not like uncertainty.

"That depends on what you want to accomplish," Kyotou answered. "That fellow with the warrant came from the west. We could go in that direction, and see if we can find out anything about this enemy of yours."

"Why would _you _want to do that?" Sango's question, and look, was direct.

"I don't have anything else to do," the middle-aged man shrugged. "And we're better off in a group if we're going to go into exile in the wild. Also, if what you've told me is true, we all owe this Naraku his licks."

Miroku wondered if they dared tell him how unlikely that was. He felt Sango flinch, and knew she was thinking the same thing.

"Let's just head that way," Kyotou said. "We need to get as far from the village tonight as we can anyway. We'll find someplace to bed down for the night and then we'll decide in the morning."

Miroku hesitated. Edo was in the opposite direction, and that road called to him. Isn't that where they always went when things fell apart?

"Miroku," Sango stood close to him and whispered so that only he could hear. "What are you thinking?"

"I was just wondering why we wouldn't go to Edo."

In his heart he already knew the answer, and he knew he knew it when he saw the sick shadow come into her eyes. She shook her head, in a slight movement.

"We have no past," she whispered. "We won't look back."

They walked for another hour, and settled on a patch of earth surrounded by young pines, which they hoped would at least shelter them from the worst of the wind. They did not dare build a fire and, though they had packed as many blankets as they could carry, they did not seem near enough.

The next morning's sky was a rose-tinted steel, and five rootless vagabonds ate a meager meal of potatoes, chestnuts, and tiny rice cakes sweetened with honey. In the honey Miroku was sure he could taste the summer that died early. He wondered if all the bees that made it were dead, and if any like it would ever be made again. A feather touch brushed his cheek and startled him. Sango was looking at him with a concerned expression. He realized he must have looked gloomy, and he cast the expression aside and smiled at her.

They walked all that day under the azure sky. It was so bright and cloudless that, looking at it, one could scarce believe it was winter. But the wind whistled through the trees and bent the grass, and the sun was pale and uncaring.

They found another place to rest that night, and it was so similar to the one before that Miroku feared they had walked in one large circle and returned to where they had begun.

That night they did risk a fire. Kyotou worked with a pile of grass and twigs to start the flame, and when the first glow appeared they huddled over it eagerly.

"That won't work," he told them. "You'll smother it before I get it going."

They edged away with reluctance. It seemed to take forever, but it was only a few minutes before he had a generous blaze flickering and dancing in the cold night. They sat near it, shared another meal similar to their breakfast, and tried to ignore the many smoldering eyes that emerged from the surrounding forest, stared and blinked, and faded again into the shadow.

Miroku was about to make some comment about whether or not they should prepare themselves for snow, when he cringed and shrank. A sudden sound pierced the dead silence of the winter night. It was an anguished, desperate cry.

"What was that?" Suzi whispered.

"I don't know," Miroku answered.

"It was uncanny," Momiji shuddered. "It's a bad omen."

Kyotou shrugged. "Whoever it was, they've got bigger worries, it seems, then trying to bother us."

That night, Sango dreamt of the horse again, the same horse she had seen in a dream on the last night she spent in Edo.

Kagome and Inuyasha and Shippou were not there. She was not quite sure that Miroku was there, though he seemed to be somewhere behind her. The horse was even more beautiful than before, less wild and compelling, more tender and pleading. She reached out her hand and touched the broad, sable neck. The horse bowed her head in greeting, and Sango knew she had mistaken it for a stallion before. It was a mare. She nuzzled Sango's neck. From behind her, Sango heard a growing roar, the sound of a calamity rushing toward her. She felt the earth tremble, and she looked up. The sky was dark except in the west, where a pale light lingered. She heard a voice.

_You can't get here fast enough._

Shippou rested again by a small fire. It was a cold night, like so many others, at the end of a long day of endless battle, also like so many others. Though it had really been only a few weeks, it felt to him like he had been doing this forever. The only thing that ever changed was the growing number of humans that followed them.

For the sake of practicality, the fighting force, collectively referred to as 'the Resistance', was quickly divided into groups called 'houses', which were more or less composed of men from the same village. These groups were led by men probably elected by the group itself through Shippou never knew or cared about that. These men reported to Shippou and Kagura. Shippou and Kagura were simply called 'the captains'.

Their strategy was simple. They moved in a migrating fan from west to east, exterminating without exception every Tsuchigumo they encountered. They left the corpses where they fell and moved on. The women, children, and elderly moved behind the army, through the land that had just been cleared of enemies, where they attempted to gather whatever food was left and to tend to the wounded. The Resistance also collected more followers as it encountered villages. Since, most of the time, the village had just been saved from certain death by the army, and since the army itself was rather intimidating, little persuasion was needed to swell the ranks.

The initial distrust of Shippou and Kagura faded quickly, and soon their demonic appearance and abilities were accepted as a matter of course. In short order the humans did not even turn a hair when Shippou transformed into a hawk of impossible proportions. He realized that humans were more adaptable than any demon he ever met. Perhaps there is something of immortality that ruins a person's ability to accept change.

He mused over this oddity as he stared into the fire and waited for sleep to come. For once, Kagura was not around.

"Taichou Shippou."

He looked up. Norio, the leader of a large house, was hurrying towards him, his grim face thoughtful and downcast as usual, his thin shoulders hunched in the cold. He was still splattered with blood, as it was his habit to help with the wounded even after fighting all day. He carried a scroll of paper in his right fist.

"Good evening, Norio-san," Shippou reminded himself at the last minute to use an honorific.

The wiry man bowed in a short, sharp movement.

"Shippou-sama, there is something here you may wish to see."

"Oh?" he held out his hand and retrieved the document. As he unrolled it, Norio spoke again.

"This is just a copy. The last town we encountered had many of them, and it is said they have spread far and wide."

Shippou read the words: "Warrant. Being that the Lord Henshin has sought to restore peace and prosperity to the land…"

He read the rest to himself. His hands began to shake, and he bit his lower lip savagely.

"Unbelievable! The audacity!" he exclaimed, tossing the hateful paper to the ground. He paced back and forth, swearing and waving his arms and shaking his fists at the indifferent stars.

"What's gotten into him?" Kagura, who had just returned, asked Norio.

He bent and retrieved the warrant and handed it to her. She glanced at it.

"I never learned to read," she said. "Would you read it to me?"

Norio glanced at the raving fox demon and back at her. He cleared his throat.

She let him get as far as the description of herself.

"Sluttish!" she burst out. "That is entirely unfounded and uncalled for!"

"I am sure only a villain without honor would write this, my lady," Norio said in a mild, polite tone. "There is more."

"Never mind. I get the idea."

She turned to Shippou. "Do you think my face is sharp and unpleasant?" she asked, rubbing her cheek and wearing a concerned frown.

"Oh, _really_ Kagura!"

"What?"

"Is that all you can say at a time like this?" he turned back to Norio. "Do people believe this junk?"

"We in the Resistance do not, my lord. The people we have so far encountered are too grateful that we are killing Tsuchigumo to ask too many questions about the two of you. Further east, we may encounter more trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"The rumor, at least, is that the Dissidents are being hunted there with fervor. The pursuit of them seems to have merged into the Movement, which is—

"That means the people who want to get rid of monks and priests, right?" Kagura interrupted him.

"Yes, my lady."

Shippou shook his head. "I can't believe what a lead he has gained."

"Who do you mean, my lord?"

"I told you about him before. Naraku. He is the devil behind all of this, and every person mentioned in that scrap of paper," he pointed derisively at the document, "is his enemy."

"They are our allies then, my lord?"

"Absolutely," he answered, silencing Kagura with a glance. There was no need to get into the particulars of their past experiences with Kikyou and Sesshoumaru.

"I will spread this news, my lord, and let it be known that we should look for these persons, so that they may be added to our cause."

He did not wait for an answer or dismissal, but bowed and made a hasty departure. Shippou stared after him.

"That's…a really good idea," he said, half to himself.

He sat again by the fire and with a gesture invited Kagura to do the same. She lowered herself and sat on his right side, facing him.

"This may be just what we need," he said to her. "With this many people looking, maybe now we'll find some of them."

"Maybe," Kagura murmured.

"Don't sound so doubtful," he said. "Have a little faith!"

"Oh, it's not that. I was thinking of something else."

"What?"

"Do you remember what we talked about before? About love?"

Shippou groaned. _Why_ had he asked?

"Why are you making that face?"

"Because," he said plaintively, "you don't talk about this sort of thing."

"Who doesn't?

"No one."

"Not ever?"

"No, not ever."

She looked at him with suspicion.

"Okay," he amended, "not never, but seldom. Only under special circumstances."

"When do I get a special circumstance?"

Somewhere in Shippou's chest there was a little twitch, like a muscle jumped and flinched from a flame.

"Well," he floundered, "parents talk about it to their children." He realized before he even finished the sentence that he was just digging himself in deeper.

"I don't have parents," she said, like he knew she would.

"Yeah, I know."

"And I'm only five years old you know."

This time Shippou visibly started.

"Damn!" he gasped. An ocean of realization crashed over his head and left him breathless. She was utterly parentless. Her formation! Her terrible birth! He shuddered. "Oh, how I forgot!"

He gave up. "Very well, Kagura," he said, trying to sound gracious. "What do you want to know?"

"To start with—

She broke off when a sudden scream, a wail of anguish, soared across the night sky. It seemed far away, and yet its power was titanic. They both leapt to their feet. Around them, some of the people stirred from their sleep, and many tilted their ears in dismay.

"What the hell was that?" Kagura's anxious whisper steamed in the air.

"I have no idea," Shippou answered. He realized his knees were shaking, like they did when he was a kid and cowered behind Kagome. Was that really so long ago?

They were silent for a few moments, but no other sounds were heard but the whining whisper of the winter wind.

"So anyway," Kagura went on, "like I was saying."

Onigumo was born of a human mother. That one fact was immutable. Sinking his tormented soul into a pool of demonic corruption could not change it. It was not altered by all the power mustered by a towering universe, demanding his sacrifice, expecting his triumph. The forces rallied by Naraku and mustered by the power behind him were combined into a vast ocean that cast that one, pitiful human soul about like a tiny, paper boat.

Yet human it remained.

_I want to leave._

Naraku had long ceased to heed this plaintive sentence, but it never left his head. It had become a quiet singsong between his ears, unnoticed and yet never quite forgotten.

A timid knock interrupted his thoughts. Hari, his most useful human puppet, entered. Naraku reflected that excessive flattery and pretended love was far easier, and far more effective, than the mental prison with which he had trammeled Kohaku.

Not nearly as fun, though.

Hari bowed. "You sent for me, my most high lord."

"Come sit with me, my favorite son," Naraku said softly. "I am lonesome."

Hari's face became an instant expression of sympathy. He lowered himself to sit next to his master, every angle in his body conveying respect and diffidence.

"Hari-kun," Naraku began, his voice breathy and weak, "you must promise me something."

"Anything, my lord."

"I fear I will soon move on from this life. It would set my mind at rest to know you will carry on our cause."

"I beg you to not speak so, my lord," Hari replied.

"I have had a vision. I have seen my death."

"Then we must take steps to prevent this unbearable tragedy!"

Naraku shook his head, his expression martyred. "Gladly will I go to my fate. It is my duty."

"My lord," Hari choked back a sob, and fell silent.

"You will promise?"

"I swear it. I will never rest."

"Do you have a petition for me to take to the other side?"

The air was cold. Outside, a few winter birds remained, but they had fallen silent. An expectant hush filled the room. Naraku listened to the sound of the sun and to Onigumo's endless pleading. He looked over at Hari, who sat with his hands clenched on top of his knees, his brown hair caught with a leather twine at the nape of his neck and falling over one shoulder. His expression was troubled.

"I wish to be saved my lord."

The sentence seemed a cacophony of noise amidst the silence, hidden before and swallowed after.

"Saved, my child?"

"From the fate of…" he hesitated, pressing his lips again. "Of never loving anyone else."

A gentle hand reached out to brush away a tear, but inside Naraku was crowing with exultation. He wondered if he could ruin this soul forever, destroy all his chances and twist his treasured decency. Could he do that here and now, without compromising the tenuous hold that he had over this tender flesh that restrained his true nature? Would the fabric tear and all the truth coming spilling out in a black blanket of poison?

With palpable regret, he retrieved his hand. He could not risk it. His plans were too important to jeopardize for a few moments of pleasure, however satisfying. For a moment his desire curdled into a rage and he wondered, not for the first or last time, where the hell was Kagura.

The look on Hari's face let him believe he had accomplished his intent just the same.

"I will do what I may, my son."

They were put down on their feet upon the brown, stiff grass that was crushed and crumbled beneath their shoes. Their hands were tied and all four of them were bound together on a long chain.

Higurashi looked around, hoping against hope to see available aid. Nothing was near but trees and empty skies. The sun was sinking behind the forest. Her knees were shaking and her heart and head were pounding, but she had quit the state of panic. The girls seemed in a state of shock. They stood as close together as they could, their faces pale and their dark eyes distant. There was a violent tug on her chain.

"You will walk."

To her horror, she realized the monster had spoken to them. She saw the girls flinch away, as if to deny this assertion of their nightmare. In her heart, she wept for them, for their ignorance and innocence. This was her fault, and hers alone.

_Oh, Souta!  
_

"Please," she cried. "What do you want with us?"

She was answered with a blow to the left cheek that sent her sprawling and brought down a couple of the girls with her. Yuka had at least the presence of mind to help her back to her feet.

"Are you okay, Higurashi-san?"

"Shhh!" Higurashi whispered. "Don't say my name!"

"Be silent!" the monster ordered them. "Unless you desire more knocks. Talking is not required of you."

He dragged them along without mercy. At times they were required to almost run to keep up with him. Often, one would fall and she would be dragged until the others got her upright again. The monster rarely even paused.

Out of the corner of her eye, Higurashi saw buildings, and she looked eagerly for signs of people. It seemed to be a village, but to her sick disappointment and dread she saw only bodies lying here and there in pools of blood that looked black in the twilight. Some of the buildings bore signs of heavy damage.

Did he do this? Had he been looking for Kagome? How did he find the well?

She knew there was an old woman here that Kagome relied on for food, shelter, and comfort when she was in the Feudal Era, though at that moment Higurashi could not find a flame of thought to light up her name.

_I hope she is not dead. Heaven protect us!_

They went on without stopping. Trees closed around them and hid the cold stars. The air was biting, but the exertion and terror kept her from feeling it. At last she began to feel the tremble of exhaustion in her feet and legs. The girls stumbled more often and they were all on the verge of collapse.

Thinking that death might be a welcome improvement on her lot and willing to risk it, Higurashi yanked on the chain.

"Please," she cried. "We must rest!"

The monster turned and glared at her. She shrank away.

"You want us alive, don't you?" she burst out.

He hesitated, and Higurashi seized her advantage and took a gamble.

"Humans must rest when it is dark, or we will perish before dawn!" she explained earnestly. "You must know that!"

The demon peered down at them, then at the moonless sky.

"It may be as you say," he said after a few moments of silence. "You are pathetic, queer little things."

"Yes!" she cried. "Just so!"

With rough hands, he shoved them together against a gnarled cypress, and he wrapped the chain around it.

"You will need food and water as well, I suppose. I cannot return you to my master if you are dead."

A shadow, sharp as a blade, fell on Higurashi's heart. She had thought that this towering beast was Naraku himself, but she now realized how foolish that had been. Of course he was not! This was just a servant, an errand boy! Doubtless, the fiend that was Naraku, a being of almost infinite power, was still waiting for them.

"You will remain here," he told them, as if they had a choice. "I would not bring attention to yourselves if I were you. There are many things in these woods that are hungry."

With those ominous words he disappeared, a dark red blur into the trees.

Dark silence closed in around them. They huddled close together. Higurashi listened to the wind murmur in the pines and to the girls whimper and shiver. They did not dare speak for some time.

At last, Yuka broke the silence. "Higurashi-san?" her tiny voice quavered. "Where are we?"

Higurashi stared into the dark forest, older and yet younger than any she had known. This was a world without skyscrapers, telephones, highways, and electric lights.

"Where the streets have no name," she answered.

Kouga stomped into the encampment before dawn, waking his fellow clansmen with savage kicks and curses.

"To your feet, you lazy dogs!" he barked.

Despite much grumbling and glowering, the wolf demons began to shamble about, putting out the last embers of their smoking fires and picking up blankets, bags, and weapons.

Until this point, they had traveled in wide circles in the mountains, with the ostensible goal of hunting Naraku. Lately, however, they had spent most of their time trying to procure food, this being the harshest, leanest winter in living memory. When they weren't foraging they were fighting off the encroachment of the strange, spider-like demons that were beginning to turn up everywhere.

"Naraku has a hand in it, I'd bet anything," he growled to himself.

Well, no more of this random, aimless wandering. It was time to take care of things once and for all. He gave brisk orders to four of his fastest, most reliable kinsmen to go in search of news, one in each direction. They were to look for the origins of the Tsuchigumo, for rumor of Naraku and his whereabouts, to ascertain the condition of other demon wolf tribes in the general area and, above all, to discover the whereabouts of Kagome.

He did not need to describe her to them, since any wolf demon associated with Kouga knew her by sight and considered her a sister.

The time for hesitation, delay, and doubt was over. He swore that before another winter came, Naraku would be dead. If he himself should have to die, then such was his fate.

"But I will not die," he murmured to himself. "I'll come back and raise the wolf tribes to a new glory, and consecrate our triumph to Ayame."

The lone scouts ate a quick meal on their feet of tough, dried meat, and were gone before the dew was off the ground. The rest of the encampment left not long after. The only thing everyone knew for certain was that the Tsuchigumo were most dense to the northwest of where they were now. Kouga made it clear that they were headed in that direction with nothing but war on their minds.

"Ni-san," one of them said to him. "That trek may take us close to Sesshoumaru's lands."

Kouga was unconcerned. "Maybe he'll join us."

The man gave him an odd look. "That…seems unlikely, sir."

Kouga shrugged. "We'll see."

Since no one covered distance as well as even the slowest wolf, it was not two days before the first scout returned to the clan. He had been sent ahead, in the direction they were moving now.

"What did you learn?" Kouga asked.

"A great deal, and all of it interesting," he returned a rugged smile. He was only a couple of years younger than Kouga and they were closely related—second or third cousins or some such, it was difficult to keep track of that sort of thing in such a large and close-knit group. And they were all considered brothers anyway.

"Well, go on!" Kouga stamped his foot impatiently.

"The first is that we will not be the only army in the area."

"Army?"

"That's right," the young demon answered. "There is a huge and growing army of humans that are systematically butchering every Tsuchigumo they can lay their hands on."

"Mere humans?" Kouga scoffed. "Doesn't seem likely they'd have much luck."

"On the contrary, the Tsuchigumo in that area are on the run. These humans, they are led by two demons."

"Demons?" Kouga's eyes widened. "What demons? Who are they?"

"That I could not find out. There were still too many Tsuchigumo in the area for me to get through."

Kouga grunted.

"I can't imagine it's Sesshoumaru," he mused out loud.

"No, I know it isn't," the scout answered, "because everyone I talked to, who knew anything about him, swore that he was still at or near home. They say that he and that vagrant cousin of his are keeping themselves busy exterminating the monsters that come near his land."

"And yet, with all this, those nasty things don't seem to diminish," Kouga fumed.

"This is true," his kinsman admitted. He stretched and yawned. "I'm going to grab a nap before we're on the move again."

Kouga sat deep in thought and did not answer.

"Oh, one more thing," the scout added. "I did hear one rumor that there were three human women living at the Hyouden now, not just that pet girl of his, but two mikos as well."

Kouga started out of his reverie. "That's ridiculous!" he shouted. "I hope the rest of your information is more reliable than that."

The young man shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I heard."

Left to his thoughts, Kouga dismissed the last bit of information outright. For such a thing to happen was without a doubt wholly unthinkable. He would as soon believe that Sesshoumaru had shut himself in his house and given himself over to keeping a menagerie of tame birds.

Kyotou always walked in the lead. He used a staff of twisted oak he had found at some point and he pressed on into the biting wind with his face set in a tight, grim expression. Sango walked close behind him, feeling the absence of the Hiraikotsu like a knife's edge, more bright and keen than ever. Momiji and Suzi followed, Momiji taking care to keep Suzi close. Miroku always followed last. He figured that if he had to turn around and use the wind tunnel, better to be in the rearguard.

They encountered little during the day, however, threatening or not. At night, when they could manage a fire, it seemed many things crept close, things they could not make out but vague shapes and shadows. But nothing dared disturb them.

On the third day, they believed their fortunes had changed when they saw a well trodden path coming over a hill ahead of them. It led down into a modest village.

"Maybe we can add to our food supply," Kyotou said. "And it'd be nice to not sleep in the dirt tonight."

It did not take them long, however, to see that the village was abandoned. The sad remains of the husk of houses stood with crumbling roofs and decaying walls. There were no sounds of dogs barking, cattle stirring, children laughing, or women washing. The only noise came from the clacking and banging of doors and windows that had fallen half off their track and casings and swung about in the wind.

Momiji sighed. "Well, maybe we can find something left behind."

The only treasures that turned up were moldy, moth-eaten blankets, which they did keep, and beans that had turned into a solid green cake in their barrels, which they did not keep.

Sleeping in a house, even an abandoned one with holes in the roof, was better than nothing, and so that was how they passed that night. The fire cast dancing shadows that Sango fancied might belong to the former occupants, rather than to herself and her companions.

A shake of her shoulder woke Sango early the next morning, an hour or two before dawn. It took her a few moments of peering into the wan moonlight to see that it was Miroku leaning over her.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Come with me," he said.

She rose and followed him out of the house, pulling her kimonos tighter around her.

"Miroku, what is this about? It's cold."

"I started another fire."

He pulled her into another of the abandoned huts where a fire smoldered in the center pit.

"Come," he urged, pulling her toward it.

She knelt beside him. "What is it?" she repeated.

"We have not been alone in a while," he said, a hand taking her arm and then pressing against her back.

"Oh," she said, somewhat startled. She was inclined, at first, to back away from him, but then she remembered.

_He is my husband now._

"Very well," she assented. "But we must not be too long."

Later that day, they encountered a second settlement, and this one was not abandoned. By unspoken agreement, Kyotou did all the talking. The residents regarded them with open suspicion. In short order, they were met with a leader, who demanded from them their names, places of origins, and business in the region.

"We came from the south," Kyotou said vaguely, "and we are searching for dear friends, from whom we became separated during the rains."

"I am certain no one here would be who you seek. I have known them all for many years and they have been in this village since long before the rains."

"Yes, my lord," Kyotou bowed slightly. "But we did hope to find comfort in your estimable village. The nights are cold and we have been journeying in the wilderness for many days."

This was met by a murmur from the crowd and many more unwelcoming looks.

"We have a small amount of money," Kyotou hurried on. "We could purchase food and drink."

"Money?" the leader scoffed. "What good would your money do us? Can you eat it? There is no one left to take money for food."

"Surely, good man, there are still some remnants of civilization left to us?"

The headman's face darkened, and Sango perceived that Kyotou was treading dangerous ground.

"What is left us," the man replied with scorn, "is to hope that peace and plenty can be restored, which it can be once we have rid ourselves of the infection of priests and monks."

"Uh-oh," Sango heard Miroku mutter under his breath. She was grateful that he, Momiji, and Suzi had traded their clergy frocks for ordinary peasant clothes.

"Surely you can see we are not of them," Kyotou lied.

The leader was about to respond, when he was interrupted by a shout from somewhere behind him.

"Dissident!" a voice rang out. "A Dissident is here!"

"There are many different kinds of love?" Kagura repeated the idea, frowning.

"Yes," Shippou said. "There is a love between parent and child, between siblings, between friends and comrades and, of course…between man and woman."

"That's the one I want to talk about," Kagura jumped on his rawest nerve.

"Of course it is," he muttered.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Like I said before, people don't talk about these things."

"But you said you would," she reminded him.

"I didn't say I'd like it though, did I?"

She did not answer.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"We are not parent and child, we are not brother and sister…so are we then—

"No! No, no, no!" Shippou shouted, waving his arms like a lunatic.

"We are not comrades?"

"Oh. Um, yes. Yes we are," he looked away sheepishly.

"What is your problem anyway?"

He did not answer.

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Can you be more than one at a time? You must be able to. I'm sure there are siblings that are comrades."

"Yes, that is true."

"Then, we could also be—

"No, no, no!"

Kagura sighed. "This is getting annoying."

"We are not lovers!" he shouted, then clamped his mouth shut and blushed to the roots of his hair.

Kagura laughed at the spectacle. "I don't even know what that means, Shippou."

"You don't?"

"No, not really. I understand there was something like that between Inuyasha and Kikyou at some point in the past, but I don't know what it entails."

"Surely you have some idea."

"I know it is important. It's between two people. And things can go bad. That's all."

"I think that's more than enough," Shippou declared. "I'm tired Kagura, and we have to -battle tomorrow."

"We have to battle every day."

He did not have a response to that, so he lay down on a patch of ground that seemed less rugged, with his back to the fire. After a time, when he thought she was asleep, Kagura spoke again.

"What distinguishes the man and woman situation from the friends?" she asked. "The others involve blood ties, but what makes the man and woman special?"

"Kagura, _please_ go to sleep."

The next day Shippou destroyed Tsuchigumo as one might casually pull up weeds in a garden. Throughout the process, he was distracted by the concern that Kagura would grill him again that night about things with which he himself was not yet prepared to cope. It was almost midday before he realized with surprised how effortless it was for him to fight.

_When did I become this way?_ He could not remember.

That night, after they had collected a ton of firewood, kindled a few dozen fires, and swallowed their meager meal of dried meat and soggy beans, Kagura did not disappoint. She seemed to have a genius for identifying the very elements of relationships and interactions which made him the most uncomfortable. She seized upon the idea that the "man and woman" relationship was singular and unique, and would not relent in uncovering its secrets.

"What is the separate element?"

"Is it the same man and woman forever?"

"Is it always a man and a woman?"

At one point he burst out that men and women in love did things together that they didn't do with anyone else. That turned out to be a mistake.

"Ever?"

"What things?"

At this point, Shippou was so distressed he began to give serious thoughts to running away. He doubted she could catch him if he transformed into the hawk. Better yet, he could become a small sparrow and it would be even easier to get away.

_And easier to be eaten yourself by a hawk._

This plan needed more thought.

"Shippou?" her voice was plaintive. "What things?"

Shippou sighed and hung his head. Clearly, he was going to have to be the adult here. He had to be strong and take responsibility.

His face flaming and his eyes locked with determination on his own feet, he launched into a bumbling, stammering, rather inept description of interpersonal _physical_ relations, all of which was based only on what he had heard throughout his life. He was near tears by the end of it, and she only sat there and gazed at him, with those unwavering, scarlet eyes and a grave expression on her little mouth. When he was done, or at least when he trailed off and wished the earth would open and swallow him alive, she merely shrugged.

"Oh, is that what all the fuss is about?" she gave what he thought was an odd little smile.

"What do you mean?"

"I just thought it would be something…grander than that. I mean, everyone seems to want it, so I thought it would be something more…happy."

Now he was genuinely confused. "Ah, Kagura, I'm pretty sure it is."

She shook her head. "Naraku used to do that to me all the time. I never enjoyed it."

Something happened to Shippou's hearing. A sudden roaring overtook him almost before he had understood what was said. His blood ran cold. A colossal blow came down on his neck, and he shuddered.

Over the rushing sound that was still ringing in his ears, he heard Kagura's muffled voice.

"Shippou! What's the matter?"

He realized she was standing over him, leaning over him, as he knelt in the grass, vomiting out the food he had just eaten. His body shook violently.

"What did you say?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.

She started to repeat the whole thing but he clapped his head in his hands.

"No! Stop! Stop!"

Kagura, dismayed, stepped away from him.

"I can't believe it," he sobbed brokenly. "What a monster! One day I will spit on his corpse, I swear it!"

"We are talking about Naraku now?"

He looked up at her. "Of course!" he leaped to his feet and grabbed both her hands. The sudden physical connection shocked her and she stared at him.

"Kagura, that's what Naraku does. He takes things that are good and twists them into something hideous. But that doesn't change that the original was, and still is, good! Do you understand?"

She was too overcome by his behavior to respond. She stared at him with wide eyes, and attempted to stutter something.

"Tell me you understand that, Kagura!" he pleaded. "Or everything I've done with you and for you is worthless!"

She pulled her hands away, and for a moment he was afraid that he had pushed her too far, had tried too hard to make her into something she was not.

But she lifted one hand and brushed hot tears away from his cheek, and then her hands grasped his shoulders and pulled him into a fierce embrace.

"I understand," she whispered. "I understand now, that you love me. Is that right? Did I get it right?"

A small laugh bubbled up through his swollen throat. "What will make you believe me?"

Kanna, pulled by her master's invisible but irresistible chain, returned. She reported what she had learned of his enemies, which had been little. Kouga she knew to be with his clans in the mountains. She discovered Inuyasha in the care of a miko that was not Kagome or Kikyou. Sesshoumaru had not left his home territory in months.

"Kagome and Kikyou are with him," she reported.

"What? Sesshoumaru has them?" Naraku asked.

"Yes, and Kohaku as well."

Naraku gnashed his teeth together.

"So much the better," he lashed out. "Let them all collect in one place, and make my task that much easier.

Kanna said nothing. As usual, her face was blank.

"What of the rest?" he demanded. "What of Kagura, Miroku, and Sango?"

"I could not find them, my master."

If Kagura had reported such a failure to him, Naraku would have devised a torture for her that was exquisite and would take days to complete. There was nothing more useless, however, than punishing Kanna. He regarded her child-like frame and colorless features for a moment, and was silent.

"Do you know what you are to do?" he asked at last, giving her a sidelong glance.

"Yes, my master," she replied.

She lifted her mirror and held it in front of her face. The surface swirled and danced like the eddies of a swift stream. When she took it away, the shape before him had changed, had grown taller, and darker.

"Nicely done", he congratulated her.

These dramatic moments were best carried out at sunrise or sunset. Impatient to move on to the next step in his plan, Naraku chose sunset. Taking unimpeachable care with his weak and frail appearance, he stood at the gate of his little house as the sky reddened behind the hills. The rays of the setting sun lay on his shoulders like a mantle of blood.

"So you are the one," an iron voice rang out. "You are the one who has been hunting me and my friends!"

Naraku lifted his head and assumed an expression of an elder dealing with a wayward child.

"I seek only to secure peace and safety for all," he declared in a soft, reasoning tone.

"Liar!"

Some of his followers had heard the commotion and came rushing to the gate.

"Master!" they cried. "We will deal with this insolent intruder!"

"No!" Naraku answered firmly. "I must face her myself."

"But… Henshin-sama…"

"It is my destiny," he declared. "Do not dishonor me by disobeying."

They shrank away.

The intruder was a woman, young, with dark brown hair that she wore in a tail at the crown of her head. Her eyes flashed like black lightening and her mouth was twisted in a sneer. She wore dark, close-fitting clothes tied with coral colored sashes. Her weapon was a boomerang of impossible proportions, which she held over her head as though it were a mere twig.

"This is the end," the evil woman declared.

She lifted her weapon high above her head and flung it at him. It sped through the air with a low whistle. To the dismay and horror of his followers, Henshin-sama did not attempt to dodge or thwart the attack. Several of the men started forward, but they were too late.

"NO!" a wail of unbearable loss escaped Hari's lips.

Higurashi estimated that it was a little past midnight. She had regained her reason in the face of terror by reminding herself that her daughter must have faced dozens of such threats during the past five years. This reminded her, of course, that she had not seen her daughter alive in several months, but she pushed this thought aside because it would not aid in her preservation.

"On Kagome's fifteenth birthday, she fell into the old well, called the Bone-Eater's Well, on our shrine."

Higurashi made a sudden announcement of this sentence, speaking out in steam in the cold air, after over an hour of their terrified silence.

Eri and Ayumi craned their necks to look at her, though they could make out little in the moonless night. Yuka did not stir, but she struggled with the strange notion that Kagome had died five years ago.

When no one spoke, Higurashi continued.

"Because of its tie to the Tree of Ages, the well serves as a transport to another time, to this time: the Feudal Era of Japan."

She listened to their breathing quicken, but still no one said anything.

"It was Kagome's destiny to lead a second life here. She was born, you see—

"She never was sick, was she?" Eri interrupted her.

"No…well, sometimes she was, but hardly ever. Most of those school absences were…lies."

The only face Higurashi could see clearly belonged to Yuka. When she looked at her, she saw that the young woman's lips were pressed tight together, and her nostrils were white and flaring.

Higurashi went on to explain what she knew of Kagome's journeys, concerning everything from the Shikon Jewel to the existence of Naraku. She described what she remembered of Kagome's companions, including Inuyasha, who they had unknowingly met before.

"This Naraku," Eri whispered, "Is that the monster?"

"No," Higurashi answered. "This monster is a servant of Naraku."

Higurashi knew she had made a mistake almost instantly. She sensed their growing panic.

"Please, remain calm," she said to them. "I know it seems impossible, but you must try, if we are to get through this."

"How could you let her do that?" Yuka, who until then had been silent, burst out. "She was _fifteen_!"

"I told you," Higurashi replied, "it was her destiny."

"An easy thing to say," Yuka retorted. "Look at us! Is this our destiny?"

"It may be!"

Silence fell. After a few minutes, Eri spoke up again.

"Did you ever come here with her?"

"The well would only let Kagome and Inuyasha pass though," Higurashi answered.

"But—

"I know. Apparently, the rules have changed."

"I just want to go home," Ayumi whimpered.

"I know," Higurashi whispered. "Don't give up!"

Higurashi, hoping to distract them, continued to talk about Kagome. She repeated stories she had heard from her daughter about people she had met and places she had been. She even listed, in meticulous detail, lunch boxes that she had packed for Kagome to take back to her friends. At last, exhaustion and cold began to take its toll, and she realized at some point that the girls had fallen asleep. She hoped, and prayed, that they would not freeze to death in the night. She spent the rest of that interminable night going over the oracles in her head, straining her mind's eye to recall something she had read that spoke of her present circumstances.

Ginta shook Hakkaku's shoulder to wake him. They had spent two days crossing the mountains with Kouga and the rest of their kin and, after coming into the valley of the Tenryu River, everyone understood that they would encounter Tsuchigumo before the sun was high. They had camped for a mere two hours to eat and grab a bite to eat before crossing the wide river. They were fortunate that it was returning to its normal level.

They crossed the freezing river at dawn, and Hakkaku turned his head to glance back at the large pack of wolf demons behind him. He was thus caught by surprise by a collision that sent him sprawling. The force had knocked the air out of him and, before he knew what it was, he was grappling with a strange assailant. They twisted and turned in the mud of the river bank as Hakkaku struggled to regain his footing and the enemy attempted to wring his neck. On his back, he looked up and saw a dark, wiry thing, covered with short, coarse black hairs and staring down at him with two clusters of eyes. The nose on this flat, ugly face was just two slits and its mouth was a pincher that slobbered and clutched for him. Hakkaku's nose was filled with the stench of rotting fruit and ash.

"Ginta!" he called.

There was no answer, and he continued to struggle to keep the nasty, bony hands from seizing his throat. Why didn't anyone do anything?

Finally, a jolt of one knee sent the devil rolling and Hakkaku was able to get to his knife. He saw that the monster had eight arms.

_This is a Tsuchigumo_.

It rushed him again, showing no caution, and Hakkaku had no difficulty slicing it up the middle. It fell in a black and green gurgling mess at his feet.

Looking around, through a confusion of dust and shouts, he understood why no one had come to his aid. The vermin had descended from the hills and onto the clans like a cloud of locusts on tender leaves. Around him swirled a tempest of blood, curses, and anguish.

_There are so many. So many! We will perish!_

Desperate or determined, bleak or victorious, Kouga's clans had engaged the enemy.

Miroku began to reconsider his opinion about Inuyasha.

Since he had first opened his eyes in that flooded hut that turned out to belong to the priestess Momiji, Miroku had never wavered in one idea:

It was all Inuyasha's fault.

It was not until he was strapped to a stake, considering how likely it would be that he would suffocate before the flames reached him, that he began to rethink his opinion about his long lost friend.

Inuyasha had many poor qualities, but if he were here, this would not be happening.

But it was happening. Someone had identified him as a Dissident from the Warrant. Angry hands rushed him all at once. Sango was pulled along with him for a time, but he thought she must have escaped, because he was the only one standing on the scaffold.

That was the worst part. He knew that Sango and the others would not forsake him. Sango in particular would not rest until she had retrieved him.

"Sango," he called out. "There are too many of them! Get away!"

His shout sounded loud in his own ears, but no one else heard it.

Some people near him were singing a dirge, and others were helping to pile more wood and straw around him. He wondered why, in a winter such as this, they would be willing to waste so much of it.

_I am a man on the longest road_

_I bid farewell to old Totomi_

_To those fair and peaceful shores_

_For all my years bound to ramble_

_No peace have I ever found_

_My dear home I'll see no more_

_I am a man on the longest road_

_My dear home I'll see no more_

"I wish they'd shut up already," he murmured to himself.

He caught the scent of something burning and saw someone holding a spray of straw that was aflame, and they were bringing it closer to him.

"Fire!" someone shouted, and soon many voices took up the cry.

Miroku sighed. "That's a little redundant, isn't it?"

After almost a minute, he lifted his head and surveyed his surroundings again. The crowd had dispersed. A lash of panic had swept it away and back towards the village. He shifted his shoulders so that he could turn his head. Smoke was coming from some place off to the left, and people were running and dashing about in mindless terror.

He realized he was unattended, and he tried to twist his hands to free them.

"Hold now," a familiar voice spoke behind him. "I gotcha."

"Kyotou-san?"

"Yeah, it's me. The girls are in the woods. We've gotta get out of here."

"Who set the fires? To the village, I mean."

"The girls."

Less than two minutes found him standing in the woods, some ways off, rubbing the red marks on his wrists. Sango embraced him fiercely, with tears in her eyes that she dashed away. The next moment, she was smiling as though the terror was forgotten.

Sango and Momiji had bags slung over their shoulders.

"You pilfered goods as well?" he asked, pinching his wife on the cheek.

"Don't say 'pilfered' Miroku-san," Momiji told him. "Those people deserved it."

"I dare say they did," Miroku said. "I won't argue with you."

"We'll have to be more careful about places and people we come across, from here on in," Kyotou warned them.

"Would you like some pickled plum, Miroku-san?" Momiji indicated one of the bags.

"Where's Suzi-chan?" he asked.

Momiji looked around in alarm. She dropped her bag.

"Now don't panic," Kyotou told her, laying a hand on her arm.

"I'll go back for her," he said, looking over his shoulder toward the village.

"I'll go with you," Miroku said.

Just then, however, the girl popped out of the shrubs like a little bird, with shining eyes and red cheeks. Momiji grabbed her hand.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry, Momiji-sama!" the girl said. "I was talking to another girl."

"You've been out socializing while we were about to get strung up by a mob?" Kyotou demanded.

"She didn't know who I was," Suzi answered, as if that explained everything. "She didn't know I was a stranger."

"So?"

"I found out more about where the Warrant came from," she said.

They stared at her.

"Isn't that what you wanted to find out?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Well," Miroku smiled, and patted her on the head. "Here I wondered how we'd get on. Little did I know we had a petite genius with us."

Suzi giggled.

"Here, Suzi-chan," Momiji held out a hand to her. "Have some pickled plum."

[End of Chapter Twenty-Two]

[Next chapter: Winter]

Author's note: Sorry this took so ridiculously long, but at least the chapter is long! Also, the little bit of song included is from "Don't Forget Me" and was written by Harry Nilsson.


	23. Winter

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Winter **

"_It sure been a cold, cold winter_

_My feet been draggin' 'cross the ground_

_And the fields have all been brown and fallow_

_And the springtime take a long way around." – The Rolling Stones_

Kagome could scarcely contain her elation when she understood that it had all been a bad dream.

The plateau, her wrecked body, Sesshoumaru's house…Kikyou's reformation.

Well, that last part made her rather sad, but still, it was better to have everything back to normal.

_Do you really want that again?_ A nagging voice in her mind was not satisfied, but Kagome refused to listen. She thought her heart might burst with joy at the thought that she was still safe and sound in Inuyasha's company.

Though at the moment she was alone in her bedroom. When she had opened her eyes that morning, she was in her own bed on a sunny morning in July. It was the day after her birthday. She had never gone back to the Feudal Era. She had never traveled with the others through the mountains or slept under the amethyst glare of Midoriko's shrine. She had never had lunch with the others on the plateau under the beating sun. Kagura's desolate eyes, Sango's despair, the finality of Naraku's violence, the ash and fire, all a dream.

After all, didn't it _have_ to be a dream? What could be more reasonable? Shouldn't everything return to normal? To be incapacitated for so long, to have her coma-state spell the beginning and the ending of apocalyptic rain, to have Kikyou arrive as a normal woman for no apparent reason, and, not the least, to be living under Sesshoumaru's roof—_these_ things were crazy, abnormal, _unreasonable. _Of course they were, because they were a dream.

She sat up and stretched, and then sat gazing out of the window at the grounds of the shrine. Inuyasha, she was sure, would appear at any moment to take her back to the Feudal Era. She decided to try and beat him to breakfast.

_Wait,_ the little nag disagreed, _didn't you already go back?_

"No," she said aloud. "That was just a dream."

She jumped violently when the alarm radio erupted in sudden song. She had set it for seven o'clock.

"_You're gonna carry that weight, carry that weight a long time."_

Kagome slapped her palm down on the top of it with such force that it stung. Her heart was pounding, and she thought it was because the unexpected noise had startled her. She dismissed it and stood up.

When she put her feet down on the carpet, a sharp sting bit into her big toe.

"Ouch!" she sat down on the bed again and brought the foot up to examine it. There was a splotch of bright red blood where the toe met her foot. She saw that there was a similar stain on the carpet, a spot like a splatter of red watercolor paint.

With cautious movements, she knelt and lowered her head so she could see if something was sticking up out of the floor. What she found were dozens of tiny shards of glass. She found one piece that still bore some semblance to the rim of a…

"My little bottle," she said, bemused, picking up the piece she'd just found, as well as the cork stopper that lay nearby.

It was the little bottle she had used to keep jewel shards, back when she still had a lot of them. What had caused it to shatter?

She shrugged and, being mindful to avoid the dangerous section of carpet, got to her feet and left the room.

"Mother, the car is here," she heard Souta's voice break the silence as she was coming down the stairs.

"Souta?" she called. "Where are you?"

No one answered. She turned at the bottom of the stairs and went into the kitchen.

When she entered the room, Kagome stopped and stared. Instead of the cheerful and ordered room she expected, there were towers of books on almost every surface, including a few precariously leaning stacks on the floor. The ticking of the eerie Felix clock was loud and it echoed over her head.

"What is this?"

_You know what it is,_ the little nag answered, _you've been here before._

"No. It couldn't be."

She heard footsteps and other noises coming from the front of the house. She turned and ran out of the kitchen, through the hall and past the staircase, and into the living room. As she passed a cabinet with glass doors she caught a glimpsed of a tall figure not her own, a man with long, white hair. She caught herself, but when she looked again it was nothing. Breathless and tripping, she hurried on and was just in time to catch Souta and her mother passing through the door.

"Wait!" she called out.

They turned, but instead of looking at her, they looked up the stairs. Kagome heard feet coming down the steps.

It must be grandfather.

She turned and saw that it was not. Yuka, wearing a black dress that was simple, even severe, and carrying a black, wide-rimmed hat, was coming down.

"Yuka?"

Her old friend paid no attention to her as she walked past.

"Oh god, no. Not this again," Kagome's voice started to break. "It's not fair!"

She turned back to her family.

"Don't you look at me like you don't see me!"

Why are they wearing black?

The realization sank into her like tepid oil, smothering.

_It must be Jiisan. He's gone._

Yuka did not speak to Souta or Higurashi. Encased in black down to their knuckles, their skin looked so white that Kagome had the immediate impression that they were somehow bleeding to death in their stiff and suffocating funeral clothes. The three exchanged guarded, unhappy glances, and then they were gone.

Bleary eyed and trembling, Kagome stumbled back into the kitchen. She stepped around the stacks of books and wondered aimlessly into the garden behind the back door. She cringed and shivered.

_It's not July._

She looked around. The place was empty; the grim gray winter hung dead in the air.

"So it wasn't a dream," she said out loud, "but neither is this, is it? How do I get out?"

With no other target, she turned her gaze to the Tree of Ages.

"Well?" she demanded. "If you're so smart, how do I get out?"

No answer. Savaged by the biting cold, Kagome turned to go back in the house.

Furtive movements on the edge of her vision made her jump and almost scream. She whirled around and saw that someone was standing under the tree. The figure seemed…wrong, strange and twisted. They wore red. Was it Inuyasha?

Kagome blinked back her tears, trying to clear her sight. She walked toward the figure with slow, fearful steps.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

It wasn't just red; it was blood. Not Inuyasha, someone else, someone covered in blood, wrong and twisted by wounds and…by…death.

_By death!_

"Who are you?"

_I think you know._

"No, no I don't!"

But she did. She was close enough now. The figure opened its mouth to speak, but nothing came out but clots of more blood. Kagome clenched her eyes shut.

It was Ayame.

Kagome's heart hammered in her chest until she felt it break, actually heard it crack and fracture like rock candy. The sudden sound of flapping wings came bursting out of the bushes nearby. Kagome's nerve broke, and she screamed as a murder of crows took to the sky.

The bond between them was driving Kikyou crazy. Tied by fate to a demon's house (and not just any demon but Inuyasha's _brother_) and tethered by her soul to an untrained, unreserved, overemotional girl, Kikyou began to spend more and more time staring out of the window in the alien bedroom that had become hers.

_Ours._

She gazed out over the flooded plain of the Tenryu, toward the distant peaks of the Hakusan, watching each day as the land became a dry tundra, searching with hope for a flash of red on the horizon.

_You can't get here fast enough._

On one night she was awakened without warning by a sudden storm that exploded inside her skull. By the time she was coherent, she was already almost weeping. Her chest constricted and she blinked back tears. She sat up, gasping for breath and clutching her hands over her heart as if she could thus restrain it and force back into its place.

_What has happened?_

The first sound she heard was Kagome's muffled whimper. The girl tossed and turned on her bed, the same bed on which she had recovered from the Plateau. Kikyou threw off her blankets and crossed the room, shivering in the cold dark. The windows were closed, but there was no moon anyway. She could only make out Kagome's face, cringing and shaking on her pillow.

"Kagome? What's the matter?"

The only answer was more whimpering. Kikyou reached out and grabbed Kagome's shoulders.

"Kagome, wake up," she pleaded, shaking the girl. She even pulled her arms until she was sitting up.

Kagome's hand fluttered to her cheeks to wipe away the tears, but they did not stop flowing. With a low cry, she threw her arms around Kikyou and fell into another bout of hysterical sobbing.

_This pain…in my chest…I can't stand it!_

"Kagome, please," Kikyou tried to keep her voice even. "Stop crying. It was just a dream."

Kagome pulled away, shook her head violently, and wiped her face again.

"No, no it wasn't," she cried, gasping for breath. "I was really there. They can move me through time and space. It's nothing to them."

"Who?"

Kagome snorted. "I don't know. Midoriko, I guess. Or those she works for. I don't know, but they've done it before."

Kikyou wanted to chide her that she was being ridiculous, but she remembered standing with the ancient priestess in the strange meadow with wooden seats, artificial lights, and faded stars. She remembered the hot food that peeled out of a paper box.

"What did you see?" she asked instead.

"My family. I think my grandfather is dead…has died since I went away. Oh god! They must be so worried about me!"

This induced more weeping. It was some minutes before she could speak again.

"I also saw Ayame," Kagome whispered.

"I am not familiar with that name."

"She is a wolf demon," the girl explained. "I haven't seen her in a long time. She's…associated with Kouga. Do you know Kouga-kun?"

"I've crossed paths with him before, I think," Kikyou said. "The wolf demon who has also sworn to destroy Naraku."

"That's him," Kagome took shuddering breaths. The worst of her hysterics seemed to have passed. Kikyou felt the pain ebb out of her chest and she shuddered herself.

"I saw her," Kagome went on. "She was standing under the Tree of Ages, covered in blood. She was dead. She is dead."

"Kagome, you're being absurd," Kikyou told her, rather out of habit than out of any real conviction. "These are just dreams, nightmares."

"You're telling me that you haven't had strange dreams lately, that were more than just dreams?"

Kikyou stared at her. She was at a loss for an answer. Kagome pulled one of the blankets up around her shoulders and stood up.

"It's cold as hell in here," she said. "I'll try to build a fire. Can't sleep anyway."

On several occasions during his interminable annihilation of the Tsuchigumo, Sesshoumaru would become troubled by a sense of futile infinity. An image would sometimes flicker behind his eyes, as if lit by a summer storm, of corpses and ruin stretching from every horizon.

It was not that he was ever in any danger, no, of course not. Yet he felt himself in the merciless grip of forever, and sometimes something close to panic would nudge into his awareness, fluttering its tiny, sharp wings on the edge of his brain.

_What if it goes on and on like this forever?_

To Sesshoumaru, forever was a _very_ long time.

At these moments, to guard his sanity, he felt driven to pause in these labors and return to his home. He would fly back to the house, sometimes with Tamotsu, sometimes alone, and he always noted with satisfaction that a clean sphere of inactivity still existed around the Hyouden. The vile and lowly spider-like demons were not audacious enough to come near it. He often registered the presence of Kohaku in the heavy, dark forest of firs that hugged the eastern edge of his land, in pursuits that seemed as endless as his own.

In the house he would find Rin waiting for him as she always did, appearing for all the world as if nothing were in the least bit unusual. She would greet him with the same exuberance as she did when she was a tiny and gap-toothed girl. That, as a blooming woman, she still ran about in a loose yukuta, with bare feet if the weather was not too cold, with her hair loose and flying behind her, made it easy to forget that any time had touched her at all.

Jaken would greet him with enthusiasm, bowing multiple times and asking questions which Sesshoumaru usually did not bother to answer.

Ah-Un spent his time in the yard outside the kitchen, and a simple bowing of his two long necks was his only greeting. He appeared to Sesshoumaru to be waiting for someone else.

All of this was familiar, but the alien presence of two extra humans, humans who gave off an air of both ripe maturity and also of a deadly purity, was undeniable. On most of his return visits, they were closeted in the same room where the younger miko had made her recovery. She no longer kept to her listless bed, however, but they spent all of their time preparing for something. He did not know what, but he didn't care. He never sought out their presence, but on occasion they did cross paths.

Once, as he was returning home, he saw that they were shooting arrows into bundles of straw, bound with twine and rags. He said nothing to them and they did not look up.

Another time, he encountered the older miko in a hallway. She was carrying a wide, shallow box, and she lowered her head as he passed. A sensation tugged at him, like a sharp thread caught on his finger. He did not try to resist his curiosity.

"What is in that?"

"Demonic slugs, my lord," she answered, lifting the lid an inch or two and closing it tight again.

"You carry such things into the house?"

"I will not let them infest your house, my lord," she assured him. "I was going to see if I could get her to purify them, as an exercise."

"This was not successful?"

"Her highness does not care to be around slugs, it would seem," she answered with some distaste, "and she says she will not kill helpless things."

"Foolishness."

"I quite agree, my lord."

She bowed again and when he made no move to leave or further the conversation, she shrugged slightly and hurried down the hall.

On another day, Sesshoumaru decided he wanted to cleanse himself of dirt and blood that came from a week of endless battle, but when he approached the door to the cellar that contained the steaming pools under the house, he heard a low melody that stopped him.

"_And when we're older, and full of cancer_

_It doesn't matter now, come on get happy_

_Because nothing lasts forever,_

_But I will always love you."_

His hand froze on its way to the screen door, and Sesshoumaru listened with mild, perplexed curiosity to his own heart pounding. His wrist pulled on the door frame before he realized it, and the slight scrape of wood against wood left a frozen echo within him.

"Is someone there?" It was not Rin's voice.

He heard a splash, and then what sounded like bare, wet feet padding on stone. Sesshoumaru did something then that he had never done before in all his long life: he fled.

He attempted the bath again later. This time, the cellar was empty. The room was quiet and the only movement came from the tendrils of steam rising up from the spring-fed pools. He was standing waist deep in the warm water before he realized he was not alone after all.

She stood in the shallow end of the pool. He saw that her hair was red, and that irises still clung to it, though they were dimmed and blackened, like her dark green eyes. He recognized her.

"_You are on the road seeking your own death."_

"_So be it."_

He lifted his hand to attack. It did not matter to him why she was there. For a wolf demoness to enter his house without leave was unforgivable.

He stopped when he realized she was already dead.

He could see now that her chest was crushed, so much so that he could almost see though to her spine. Her throat was torn, and he saw that she was trying to soak rags in the water so that she could plug the wounds. Her eyes were like withered fields, and when she saw him she lifted one hand, with fingernails full of clotted blood, toward him in a forlorn, supplicant gesture.

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes.

"Go away."

She was gone when he opened them.

He came back to the Hyouden even more infrequently after that.

In the bright midday sun, Inuyasha, Nazuna, Nobunaga, and Jinenji, moved around the wreckage of the Plateau with a kind of silent reverence.

Nazuna was particularly reticent. During the course of that morning, her head grew heavy and her face seemed to swell until it was difficult to keep her eyes open. The incredible memorial of destruction that surrounded her now had succeeded in reaching her through her haze. She looked around, taking in the magnitude of the destroyed trees and ravaged landscape with a kind of numbed awe. Inuyasha, the half-demon who stood so near to her now, had stood here once before, when it was a patch of meadow in the high mountains, like any other. He had seen it before it was marked with so much death. He had seen its scorching and had lived through it.

He was a half-demon, she reminded herself, and Nazuna had only a vague notion of what that meant. She believed, standing here, that his friends really were dead, that they had to be, no matter what he said he believed.

Something amidst the ruin flashed and twinkled in the sun, and made a sudden glint in her eyes.

"What is that?" she pointed.

Myouga, seated on his master's shoulder, shielded his eyes and peered in that direction.

"Something metal, something gold, it seems."

They all walked in that direction. Inuyasha, or course, was the first to realize what it was. With a sharp intake of breath, he ran forward and cleared the space between him and the object in two bounds.

When she caught up, Nazuna saw that he was holding a tall staff, with a brass circle at the top adorned with many round rings that clinked against each other like sparkling bells.

"Ah," Myouga said. "I see."

"What is it?" Nazuna asked.

"It looks like a monk's staff," Nobunaga said.

"That's 'cause it is," Inuyasha said. "This belonged, _belongs_, to Miroku. I'm glad I found it. He'll want it back."

"Here, use this," Nobunaga said. He reached into his satchel and produced a wide, woven strap that was dyed blue.

Inuyasha secured the staff across his back.

"I want all of you to wait right here," Inuyasha said to them. "Don't wander off. I'm going to look around and see if I can find anything else."

"Stay here," he repeated, and was off.

He was gone no more than fifteen, twenty minutes at the most, but to Nazuna it felt like forever. She wanted to go somewhere else and go to sleep. Her nose was running constantly now and her head throbbed.

"Nobunaga-san," she said. "Did you ever meet these other friends of Inuyasha's?"

He was still staring the direction Inuyasha had gone. When she spoke, he turned to her, appearing startled. For only a moment, his widened eyes and open face made him look innocent and boyish.

"Why yes, of course. Didn't you?"

"Only Kagome-chan and Shippou-san."

She would not have remembered Shippou's name on her own, but Inuyasha often spoke of his friends, and she felt she knew them better now than she could have back then.

_When I was young._

"Really?" he sounded confused. "I guess he hadn't met them yet."

He laughed. "I guess that means you've known Inuyasha-sama longer than I have."

"That was so long ago," she murmured. The sides of her head begin to feel as though they were caving in, or _trying_ to cave in. A line of pain had announced its presence by tickling her throat all morning and then finally giving in and diving down the whole length of it.

"It couldn't have been all that long," he said, still smiling. "I believe he was still pinned to that tree five years ago."

"Yes, but still. Much has gone by since then," she said.

"Wait," she looked at him. "What tree?"

He looked surprised again, and she found it hard not to reach out and pinch his cheek. She might have done so, if she wasn't feeling like a throbbing toothache from head to toe.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Well, it's a long story, but I can give you the highlights, I guess. Inuyasha spent fifty years or so imprisoned on a tree by a miko's sacred arrow."

"How awful!"

"Yes, though he slept through it. The awful part was that it was his lover who did it."

"His lover was a human?" Nazuna was shocked to her core. She had never heard anything so scandalous. She liked Inuyasha well enough, but...he was still a half-demon.

"Right," Nobunaga did not seem to notice her dismay. "Their enemy, Naraku, tricked them into betraying each other. At least, that's what I've been told. Inuyasha would never talk about it."

"I imagine not," she said. "I always though he and Kagome-chan were..."

"I did too. His old lover is dead after all, so I think that's still true."

"Unless, she is also dead. Kagome-chan, I mean."

Nobunaga turned to her in surprise. "Kagome-chan is not dead."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I just am," he said.

"But..."

"Kagome-chan is_ not _dead," he repeated stubbornly.

"Amari-san is right," Jinenji said.

The giant's sudden, rumbling voice startled her. He had not spoken all that morning.

"What we are doing, it is not meaningless. We are moving toward something, something big."

Nazuna was about to question this rather grand statement, when Inuyasha reappeared.

"Did you find anything?" Nobunaga asked him.

"Not really," the half-demon answered.

Nazuna saw that he was, however, carrying a weathered and rusted arrow.

"Inuyasha-sama," Myouga said, still sitting on his master's shoulder. "There are things I have heard. I do not know if they are significant, or even true."

"Yeah?" Inuyasha answered, adjusting the staff across his back. "What is it?"

"Well, I have heard that the lands to the north of the Hyouden are overrun by the Tsuchigumo."

"I see. That sounds ominous," Inuyasha said. "What is the 'Hyouden'?"

Myouga shook his head, but explained, "The Hyouden is where Sesshoumaru lives. It is the home built by your father and … well, by your father.

"So it's still there?"

"Of course it is still there. The Hyouden will stand forever."

"Nothing's forever, Myouga."

"Anyway, I have heard that the monsters are not actually on his land, yet. I have also heard there are two mikos living there."

"What? Human mikos?" Inuyasha exclaimed.

"That is what I have heard. In truth, I do not believe it."

Inuyasha was silent for a moment. "Anything else?"

"The most promising rumor I have heard is that, immediately following the explosion that proceeded the rains, two humans were found not far from here. The only reason I heard about it is because they were presumed dead and suddenly came back to life. It was thought to be a miracle at first, and people came from miles around to look at them…until the rains made travel so difficult."

"Just two humans? What does that mean to us?"

"Some people say it was a miracle, most came to believe they were cursed," Myouga went on. "But one thing everyone has agreed on: it was a man and a woman, a monk and a demon slayer."

A silence fell over them. Nazuna held her breath, waiting for Inuyasha's reaction.

"Which way?" was all he said.

They made an abrupt turn to the south, but had not gone far before Nazuna came to a stop.

"I know you're eager, Inuyasha," she said, "but night is coming on. We must stop."

"Inuyasha-sama can run all through the night," Myouga declared.

"He would have to abandon us though," Nazuna pointed out.

"No," Inuyasha said. "We'll stop."

By the time they had a fire going, the silver twilight had come down to hang over their heads like a shroud. Behind the bare trees, the lilac color faded into gray.

Nazuna unrolled her fur hides and unpacked those belonging to Nobunaga, who inventoried their dwindling food supply and rationed out some for himself and the others. Jinenji, who sat by the fire, refused the food. Inuyasha waved it away.

"I'm going for a walk," he said to them. "I want to make sure the area is safe."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Jinenji offered.

"No," Inuyasha answered. "Everyone, just go on to sleep."

They did not see him again that night. Jinenji was the last one to fall into slumber, under the moonless sky.

Tamotsu

Kagome

"Shouldn't we think about leaving?"

Kikyou looked up. She had been rummaging through a box she discovered in the kitchen, which contained various plants and strange liquids in tiny glass bottles and powders in paper packets.

"Leaving?" she asked.

"Yes, leaving," Kagome said. "We need to find the others and, well, whatever else Midoriko wants us to do. We're not accomplishing anything here."

"I am not so sure about that."

"Huh?"

"In the first place," Kikyou explained, "Midoriko, or Ichiro, or whoever, told you that Sesshoumaru is supposed to be one of our allies. That is probably why we are here."

She eased a small cork stopper from the top of a bottle and sniffed at the contents, her brows knitted in puzzled concentration.

"Supposed to be," Kagome muttered.

"In the second," Kikyou went on, "you are not strong enough to travel very far."

"I'm walking well enough now, aren't I?"

"Kagome," Kikyou said, as if explaining something to a child, "there is a vast difference between strolling the grounds of the Hyouden and trekking across miles of open, freezing wilderness. Not to mention the general turmoil surrounding this area. You would not last a day."

"Turmoil?"

"Yes, turmoil," Kikyou sighed. "If you have kept your head stuffed in feathers all this time, kindly remove it now."

"You don't have to be insulting."

Kikyou did not answer but continued her inventory of the mysterious, lacquered box.

"What are you doing anyway?" Kagome peered over her shoulder.

"I found this in the kitchen," the miko answered, "and I think it contains many useful medicines, though some are strange to me, and others I would not dare use on a human."

"Demon medicines?" Kagome gasped.

"Some of them."

Kagome could not think of anything else to say, so she wandered over to the window and started to open it.

"Come away from there," Kikyou ordered without looking up. "It is too cold. The last thing I need is for you to catch pneumonia."

Kagome sighed and returned to the fire. She sat before it cross-legged and dropped her chin in one hand, wearing a disconsolate expression.

"Do you have nothing better to do than to mope about?"

"No," Kagome groaned. "I'm so bored."

"'Bored' she says. Perhaps you miss your old friend Naraku."

"Now that really is too insulting."

Kikyou retrieved a bow and arrow from the corner and shoved them into Kagome's lap.

"Go out to the gardens and practice your aim."

"But you just said it was too cold!" Kagome protested.

"Bundle up," Kikyou shrugged, returning to her preoccupation.

"But…"

"The gardens Kagome. Now."

Kagome rose, in a huff, and went to the door.

"You're such a bossy brat."

"Takes one to know one," Kikyou said without looking up.

With a little exclamation of surprise and indignation, Kagome stomped out of the room.

"Finally," Kikyou murmured to herself, "some peace and quiet."

Some kind of sound lifted him from the trance. He used a foot to kick a Tsuchigumo off his blade. It was the same feeling he would sometimes get when walking a well-known path, one so familiar that he didn't have to look at it. Sometimes he would stop and realize he had taken all the turns, stepped over all the roots and around the reaching branches, all without noticing or remembering.

It was like that now. How many had he killed this morning? How had he done it? He was not sure. Usually, Sesshoumaru tried to be neat about such things, but now his clothes and hair were matted with blood, some of it drying. He did not remember any of it.

It was not a sound that had brought him out of this fog after all. It was an unusual shape. He was standing in a patch of sparse forest, meadow that was gradually surrendering to fir trees. By the look of the sun, it would soon be dark. The eastern sky was already gray. Ahead of him on the path stood a figure that was not a spider monster.

It was her again.

She was less bloody this time. Her face and eyes were clear, and he could not help but be startled by the notion that the dead could heal. Her chest and throat still bleed constantly.

The idea of calling out to her occurred to him, but he would not do so. He stood obstinately silent. She regarded him with an unwavering gaze, her green eyes never leaving his face.

He was speaking, after all. In fact, he was somewhat shocked to hear himself shouting.

"You go to hell!"

She lowered her head; her entire upper body hunched over. She stood drooping, with her red hair falling over her face. He was uncomfortably reminded of a cruelly beaten animal. Then she was gone. And so was he.

Or, so was everything else. The forest, the bodies, the blood, the stench of rust and decay that had covered everything for months—all gone.

He stood in a smaller space. The first sensation that hit him was a deep sense of being trapped, of being trammeled in thick and impenetrable walls. He looked around.

The ground immediately around his feet was bare and clear. To the right was a strange structure he did not recognize. There were similar but smaller structures to the left and behind him. Ahead of him, where the shade of the wolf demoness had stood, was a giant tree that shaded most of what he could see.

His eyes were not being all that helpful. Nothing he saw could be connected to anything in his memory and to little in his experience. His nose was worse. There was the smell of dirt and grass, different kinds of food, and the dusty, oily smell of a few animals, mostly birds. Everything else was beyond all contemplation. Stone-like, but not stone. Glass-like, but not glass. Fire-like, but not fire.

"Disconcerting, huh?"

Sesshoumaru thought he recognized the lazy, informal voice, and he turned to deliver a biting retort to Tamotsu.

Sitting on a bench that was pushed against the outside wall of the house, was his father instead.

A number of responses came into his mind, ranging from "What the hell are you doing here?" to "It would be only proper if you were standing when I ran you through." His grip on his sword tightened, but he said nothing.

"Well," his father said after a few moments. "Are you going to just stand there? You won't get back home that way."

Sesshoumaru still said nothing, but he was not ignoring his father, not deliberately. He was lost in the cacophony of a foreign song, a hum and drone of sounds he could not place. None of them were too near, and yet they were all around him. A sudden and angry blare made him turn. From the same direction, there was a screeching protest that sounded almost like a sword being forced into another piece of metal, followed by more blasts of unmatched notes. The commotion melted away into the general hum that surrounded him. His nose caught the sharp and acrid scent of something burning again.

"It's no use thinking about that. You don't have time, and it doesn't concern you anyway."

"I won't get back home?" Sesshoumaru repeated. "Therefore, I am not home?"

"No."

After some silence, Ichiro stood and motioned to his son.

"Come this way. We'll do what needs to be done and then you can go back."

"How?"

"Don't worry about it. Come."

Sesshoumaru stood still for a moment. He had never been in the habit of obeying his father, and saw no reason to start now, now that...

_...now that he's dead._

"I'm not _really_ dead," his father said. "But I guess that depends on how you define 'dead'."

Sesshoumaru stared at him.

"You're surprised," it was not a question. "She was too. I'll tell you the same thing I told her. There are no secrets in the dreaming world. And before you ask, _I'm_ not in the dreaming world, _you _are."

To Sesshoumaru's ears this was all perfect nonsense. He looked around, and finally surrendered to the undeniable evidence that he knew nothing here. He reasoned that following his crazy ghost of a father would not likely make him any more crazy than he already was. Without intending to, he recalled the possession of Rin, the house full of willful objects, the visions of the dead wolf demoness, the fear of sleep that had taken firm hold of him, and he admitted, in the secret cell in his mind, that he was in a good deal of trouble anyway.

He was about to turn, when a muffled sound snared his attention again. It was a low groan, and it came from something lying in the cold dust about twelve feet away. He had seen it before, of course, but had not registered it, since it was inanimate. Now he could see that it was a young man, perhaps close in age to Kohaku, with a large gash across his forehead and left temple. Blood covered the left side of his face. The boy groaned again, and twitched, but did not appear conscious.

"Pay no attention to him. It isn't your concern."

"Who is he?" Sesshoumaru asked.

Ichiro looked at him for a moment, his amber eyes puzzling something out.

"He is Kagome-chan's younger brother."

This information was so startling that Sesshoumaru did not dwell on the fact that his father referred to Kagome as "Kagome-chan", as if he had known her forever.

He moved toward the boy.

"Sesshoumaru," his father said. "I told you to leave him. You can't help him anyway."

But Sesshoumaru was transfixed. He felt pulled toward the boy. He found himself standing over him, peering down into his face, looking for similarities between it and...

He reached out to touch the young man's shoulder. His hand passed right through it and he heard his father sigh.

"I _told_ you. _You're_ the ghost here. Just like me."

Sesshoumaru tried again, with the same result. He straightened, but he he did not turn away. The sight of this wounded boy filled him with anger, and frustration.

Then his father was standing next to him.

"I know how you see this," he said to him. "It's hard for you, because your destiny is pushing you, trying to fulfill itself even now. I guess I should have foreseen it."

"Does death drive us mad?" Sesshoumaru asked him.

"Why are you asking me?" his father returned.

After some silence, he spoke again. "I know it goes against your nature at the moment to leave him here, but you must. Someone else is coming to help him. We have other things to attend to."

He turned and went into the house.

"Come on, come on. Don't dawdle."

Sesshoumaru tried to recall if had ever heard his father say "dawdle" before, even as he turned and followed him into the house.

The first room was a kitchen. Even Sesshoumaru could discern that much, because of the smell of heat and food that still lingered here, even though now it was cold. Despite it being a kitchen, it was clear that someone was also using it for something else, because dozens of books, all of them crackling with dust, were stacked everywhere. His father paid no attention to this scene, however, and kept walking.

This was someone's home. A home for _humans._ But that was all that Sesshoumaru could tell about it. Everything in it was foreign to him. The smells were artificial and unpleasant. The furnishings seemed drowned in melted wax. Everything was covered in fur, not animal hides, but the twisted fibers of something more plant-like. They came to wooden stairs, and Sesshoumaru followed his father to the top.

The next room they entered looked as strange as any of the others had, but it did not smell as strange. After having lived with her for so long, Sesshoumaru knew this scent well. There were other smells present and more recent, and Kagome's scent was fading from this place, but it was still clinging to everything, like a smoldering ghost.

The largest item in the room was a rose-colored rectangle, pushed into the corner. It was raised half a span off the floor, but when his father sat down on it, its surface gave way to him somewhat and the structure of it creaked, a rusty, metallic sound. Sesshoumaru understood that this was a bedroom. His father motioned for him to sit down, but Sesshoumaru remained standing, only looking at him. His father shrugged.

"We're running out of time," he said. "I brought you here so you could see the truth."

Sesshoumaru, naturally, centered on the information that was the most important.

"_You_ brought me here?"

"Well, not exactly," Ichiro admitted. "It's complicated."

"What is this 'truth'? Be done with it, so I can return to my business."

"Your business?" his father looked at him, his eyes narrowing. "And what is that?"

Sesshoumaru was silent. After a moment, his father shrugged and then indicated their surroundings with a wave of his hand.

"Look around, Sesshoumaru, this is it."

"This is what?"

"The truth," he answered. "Look around."

Annoyed, Sesshoumaru looked around. His eyes scanned the room perfunctorily, then returned to his father, who sat looking at him with an expression of smug amusement.

"So did you see it?" he almost laughed.

"Enough with your games," Sesshoumaru retorted. "You were a fool in life and you remain a fool in death."

"Truer words were never spoken," his father laughed outright now. "Very well, since you're my son, I'll just tell you."

He waited for his son to say something, but Sesshoumaru was...well he was still Sesshoumaru, and he said nothing. Ichiro opened his mouth to speak, but before words could come out, Kagome walked into the room.

Sesshoumaru whirled to face her, amazed in spite of himself, and ready to demand how she had left the Hyouden.

Not just how, but _why. Why did you leave? Why _would_ you?_

But she did not see him. The air around him glimmered, like oil under the sun in summer, and brightened, and when it cleared he saw that she had walked through him. She could not see him, but he could see, hear, and smell her. When she passed through him, he had felt anger, anguish, and a strange but tormenting shame.

He looked at his father, who appeared as startled and confused as he felt, but made a conspiratory gesture for him to watch and listen.

A moment after Kagome, Inuyasha followed. Sesshoumaru could not remember the last time he had been this close to his brother, and it struck him that Inuyasha was angry, seething even.

_He's always angry when I'm around._

But Inuyasha's emotions were not directed at his half-brother. Like Kagome, he did not even see him.

"Kagome," he called out, and reached for the young woman's arm. "We have to talk, we have to get this over with."

Sesshoumaru was surprised again when he realized that Kagome was younger. Not by much, but it was noticeable, at least to him.

"Since when do you want to talk about anything? About _us_?" Kagome glared at him and jerked her arm away. "There's nothing to talk about anyway."

"So that's it then," he growled. "You want me to just leave you here?"

"Don't be stupid," she snapped at him. "I know what I have to do."

"You'll come back? Even though...even though you hate me?"

Inuyasha was grating the words out like they were rocks cracking on his iron teeth, but his eyes were dark and haunted. It was obvious that he could barely bring himself to look at her. Sesshoumaru had not seen a look like that since...since...

_You're none of mine._

"Hey, newsflash," the girl said in an acidic tone. "The world does not revolve around YOU."

"Kagome, I..." he reached for her again.

"Stay _away from me_!"

"I can keep going," Kagome's shoulders hunched, and she hung her head. "I can keep going, because I have to. And I will, no matter...

"No matter how many times you screw me and leave!"

She spit these words out like they hurt her, like it would be worse to keep them in her mouth longer than she had to.

Inuyasha flinched, reddened, and clenched his fists.

"It happened once!" he shouted. "And I said I was sorry!"

For the first time, he raised his head and looked at her, and both Sesshoumaru and Ichiro could see that he was weeping. Sesshoumaru experienced something then that he could not place. A weight settled somewhere between his throat and stomach and made it hard to breathe. He wanted to leave. As they all stood in the silence, Sesshoumaru turned this feeling over and over, studying it, feeling the weight of it, until at last he could identify it. He was _mortified._

_I should not be here. It's unseemly._

Kagome wiped her sleeves across each glistening cheek. When she spoke, her voice was a hoarse rustle.

"If you don't love me now, you will never love me again."

Silence feel again and Sesshoumaru had just decided to leap through the window, when it was all gone. Kagome and Inuyasha vanished as if they had been mere drawings on paper that was now snapped away. The light and air of the room changed in a flicker, and Sesshoumaru understood without thinking about it. What he and his father had witnessed was not a shade, a memory stored by this strange house, but instead they had been moved back to witness the event itself, in real time.

Ichiro let out a slow breath. "That was...odd."

"Was that the 'truth' you spoke of?"

"Not that I know of. It wasn't intended by me, or told to me in advance, but I guess someone wanted us to see it."

They were silent for some time. Sesshoumaru stood wondering what his father was thinking. He imagined that seeing Inuyasha and Kagome together would bring back unpleasant memories for him.

He _hoped _it did.

"The truth is, Sesshoumaru-kun," Ichiro broke the silence, "there is life, here. You need to see that."

Sesshoumaru looked around, but saw nothing but the misshapen furniture and odd colors and fabrics.

"Look there," Ichiro pointed.

Sesshoumaru saw a square that contained an image, some kind of painting. He picked it up.

It did not look like any painting he had ever seen. The images were perfect representations of people. There were four young women, only one of which he knew. A younger Kagome, even younger than the one he had just seen, smiled at him from behind a plate of crystal.

"She existed here," his father went on. "She had a life here, a good one, as that sort of thing goes. And yet, she is now with you."

Sesshoumaru carefully replaced the artifact.

"Despite the difference in time and space, she is with you. This is not for nothing. _That_ is the truth."

Sesshoumaru was silent. Outside in the courtyard, where he had begun this ridiculous journey, a movement caught his attention. He peered through the window and saw two figures standing over the boy. One of them said something to the other, then turned back and bent to pick up the boy. They wore hoods, and he could not see their faces. Still, there was a feeling, familiar but not.

"Now our time really is run out," his father said. "Time to go back."

"How?"

His father stood up and planted his feet firmly in front of Sesshoumaru's, crossing his arms.

_He's still taller than me._

"Easiest thing in the world," he grinned. He face scrunched together in a strange smirk and he stuck out one arm.

"Poke," he said.

He rammed his finger into Sesshoumaru's chest.

Sesshoumaru was taken somewhat aback. When his father moved his hand again, he moved to block it but was not quick enough.

"Poke."

"Stop it, old man," Sesshoumaru snarled.

"Poke!"

This time, the finger landed like a miniature hammer and Sesshoumaru reeled backwards. The air glimmered again, as if he was underwater. Even as he stood there, realizing that he was holding his sword again, that he was smelling the dead Tsuchigumo, that he was inhaling the dirt and pine of his own land again, he heard his father's voice drifting through the air, ghosting across the space between.

"One day you will ache like I ache."

Inuyasha woke them all at sunrise. They huddled around the fire, choking down rice that was turning hard and venison that was tough and stringy. The worst was the water. They had collected it from a stream that flowed from the mountains and it was an icy slush. Nazuna gulped it down quickly and prayed for hot tea steeped with honey.

The last few weeks had been a mix of relief and dread for her. Traveling with the others, especially Nobunaga, relieved her of her loneliness, but she felt as though they were wandering aimlessly and that she would never be warm again. Talk of this place, the Hyouden, had cheered her somewhat, because it sounded like the sort of place with beds and fireplaces.

And tea, of course.

Only now they were heading in another direction and Nazuna was not sure how she felt about it. She even gave some thought to calling the whole thing off and saying goodbye to her new friends, but she concluded that she was rather trapped in the situation, since to leave would mean solitude and likely death.

She did not want to be the weak one, but that she was the weakest member of this little "family" was too self-evident. Her feet were beginning to crack and bleed; her mouth had been doing so for about two weeks. By noon, she began to stumble, falling further behind the others.

_I'm not going to make it, _she began to think, _I don't care…I just want to sleep…_

The notion had its appeal. She could stop for a nap, someplace with soft moss and sheltered from the wind, and catch up to the others later. The more she thought on it, the more reasonable it seemed.

She was examining an evergreen shrub on a gently slope for just this purpose when she heard Nobunaga's voice.

"Inuyasha-sama!" he called. "Slow down. Something's wrong with Nazuna."

She turned to say that there was nothing wrong with her, but she found that her voice would not come out. She realized for the first time that her throat hurt; it was painful to swallow, though there was little to go down from her sandpaper tongue. Later, she would not remember whether or not she had been able to take a single step.

Nazuna opened her eyes. Low voices murmured in the background, and an orange and red light glimmered and danced above her on a strange, sloping ceiling. Her eyes were tender and burning, and the light hurt them. Nobunaga was leaning over her.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"You're sick. You passed out," he said to her.

"Where am I?"

"Inuyasha found this shed. It's dilapidated, the roof is caved in, but it was best we could do."

He continued to talk, but Nazuna's eyes could not stay open.

She got the impression that no time had passed when she opened her eyes again, but now she heard Nobunaga talking some distance away. Her head was too heavy to lift.

"I know you're impatient to be gone, Inuyasha-sama," he was saying.

"No, no," she heard Inuyasha's rough voice. "We can't leave until she's OK. I shouldn't have pushed her in the first place. Why didn't she say she was sick?"

"I don't know."

Nazuna floated in and out of a world of black and red haze. She caught snatches of conversation and was dimly aware that she had been given medicine that Jinenji had made for her.

_Inuyasha wanted to find his friends, _she thought. _I need to get up._

But then the world was wiped away again.

She awoke again, shivering. Her head had cleared and she found herself sitting up with little effort before she realized it. She noted that there was no one around and the fire had gone out. By the light and the few bird calls she could hear, she discerned that it was morning.

"Is anyone there?" she called, pleased that her voice came out.

In less than ten seconds, Nobunaga darkened the doorway.

"So you're awake at last!" he exclaimed. "Feeling better?"

She nodded, pulling the fur blankets up to her neck. He looked around.

"Oh no, I see your fire went out. I apologize. Wait one minute."

He ducked out again.

When she heard someone coming through the doorway again, she said "Nobunaga, I'm near starving to death."

"I'll see what I can do," replied a brusque voice.

She looked up to see Inuyasha standing at the foot of her bed, with his arms crossed.

"Oh, Inuyasha!"

"Glad you're doing better," he said, turning his back. "I'll try to find you food."

Nazuna had a hand out to try to stop him, but he was already gone. She settled back into her blankets, pulling them over her head in an effort to warm herself with her own air. When she heard someone else come in, the only revealed one dark eye to the air.

"Is Inuyasha mad at me?" she asked Nobunaga, who was trying to get the fire going again. "He is, isn't he?"

"No, of course not. Why would he be?"

"Because I'm delaying him."

"Inuyasha is not quite so unreasonable as all that."

Between the three of them, they fed her, kept her warm, and in general well treated. It still took three days before they were able to resume their journey. During that time, they all slept on the floor of what they had come to call "Nazuna's hut". Inuyasha, in his usual fashion, had wanted to sleep outside, but Nazuna wouldn't hear of it, and when she pleaded with him he acquiesced readily. He wouldn't look at her, but he acquiesced.

On the third and last night, they lay in the orange darkness. Their breathing told Nazuna that no one was asleep.

"Does anyone know any songs?"

Inuyasha snorted. Nobunaga was silent. After some few moments, Jinenji produced from his travel pack a little reed flute.

"I can't sing, of course," he rumbled in his rolling thunder voice.

At first it was only a jumbles of sounds but, little by little, a melody of windy notes emerged, changing over from random noise to harmonious music the way the grayness of morning changes over to the brightness of day. Nazuna startled them all by added her own instrument to it. Her voice was small, and strained by her illness and by privation, but she blended it so well with the instrument that it was almost hard to tell where it was coming from.

"_For to see our sun is shining_

_A thousand miles we'd travel_

_We've had our share of the weeping air_

_Why has the sky unraveled?_

_Still we sing happy youkai, blessed yami_

_The oni are lucky_

_For they all go bare and they swim in the air_

_And they need no home nor plenty_

_We went down to Yomi's table_

_For to beg of the Queen our dinner_

_There we saw the sword across her knee_

_You can bet we left much thinner!_

_Still we sing happy youkai, blessed yami_

_The oni are lucky_

_For they all go bare and they swim in the air_

_And they need no home nor plenty_

_When maidens feed the demon cake_

_from our blood and bone powder_

_The curse will break and the stars will shake_

_And there'll howl no demon louder!_

_Still we sing happy youkai, blessed yami_

_The oni are lucky_

_For they all go bare and they swim in the air_

_And they need no home nor plenty_

_For to see our sun is shining_

_A thousand miles we'd travel_

_We've had our share of the weeping air_

_Why has the sky unraveled?_

_Still we sing happy youkai, blessed yami_

_The oni are lucky_

_For they all go bare and they swim in the air_

_And they need no home nor plenty_

_Worry not my daughters_

_Worry not my sons_

_We will all go bare and swim in the air_

_When all is said and done"_

"Where did you hear that?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well, actually..." Nazuna mumbled.

"She just made it up of course," Nobunaga laughed. "We are learning a lot about our Nazuna."

"I don't know," was all she'd say. "It just came to me."

That was not the end of the evening. Nazuna remembered a few other songs, tunes from her childhood that were more lighthearted. Nobunaga clapped along and Jinenji tried to keep up. Inuyasha just tried not to think about his usual, impatient aversion to levity.

_How about just enjoying the moment for once?_

If there had been any lingering doubt in her mind that she truly lived, it was gone now. There could be no doubt that she felt as all flesh feels because, damn, it was _so_ cold.

Even removed by fifty years, none of Kikyou's catalogs of memory contained a worse winter. It was not that there was a lot of snow; the air was as dry as the summer and autumn had been wet. This seemed to make it worse, as the frozen air blew across the land like rending claws, with nothing to break it but bare, abraded trees and barren rock.

_This is not the land of my youth._

The Hyouden, perched on the northern face of the hills with its front to the sea and its back to the fields where the wide river flowed to the ocean, stood exposed to the winter winds like a single tooth protruding from the gum of the land. The brutal gusts assaulted the doors and windows and invaded every seam and crack. As the year was drawing to a close, the women and even Jaken were forced to close off most of the house, and they lived in just two rooms, one where they slept and the other the kitchen, where Jaken slept.

Her numbed fingers and aching toes reminded Kikyou that she was a normal woman now. Even her right shoulder ached in the cold, as if it remembered an old wound.

Gradually, she stopped thinking of her time spent as an artificial clay figurine, animated by stolen souls. More often, when her hands were busy with some task or other, she thought of the days before her first death, or of what she had learned of Midoriko and Kagome since the rains. Sometimes she would only hum to herself one of the silly songs she was now accustomed to hearing from Kagome, who sang to herself whenever she was not sleeping, eating, or talking.

"_All you need is love, love, love is all you need._"

"Hey, I know that tune," a voice made Kikyou jump and drop her tea, the little earthenware cup clattering on the floor and spilling its contents.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." It was Tamotsu. He entered the kitchen, which was where they all spent most of their time, since it had two fire pits.

"Anyway, I only meant that it was one of the first little songs I heard from Kagome-chan."

He went to one of the fire pits and sat in front of it.

"It is a silly song," Kikyou said, picking up the broken crockery.

"Perhaps," he smiled. "Speaking of which, where is she?"

"She is in the baths."

"She does that a lot," he remarked.

"Yes," Kikyou agreed. "It is quite important to her."

When Kikyou poured some more tea for herself, she prepared a second cup for the dog demon, out of an ingrained politeness. He took it without comment and sat gazing into the fire, humming the silly tune to himself. After some time passed in silence, he looked up as if he had just thought of something important.

"You have everything you need, right?" he asked and, seeing her perplexed expression, explained, "Food, firewood?"

"Well, we can always start burning the furniture for firewood, if we need to."

He looked up startled, and Kikyou could not keep herself from laughing at the expression. When did she become this way? She could not remember.

"I was only joking. Kohaku-san takes care of all those things for us."

"Ah yes, the boy," Tamotsu mused, as if he had forgotten about him. "Haven't seen much of him."

Kikyou continued with her chores, but Tamotsu thought he saw her expression darken and her eyes become troubled. He did not spend much time wondering what she was thinking, however. He had his own troubles and the weight of them was exhausting. Instead, he sipped his tea and wondered if she would let him bed her, if he tried.

That night, as he tried to sleep in one of the cold, empty rooms upstairs, it occurred to him to try. But then it occurred to him that she did not sleep alone and that this might make things awkward.

Or it might makes things pleasant. Very, very pleasant. Knowing full well that this was pure wishful thinking, he pursued that line of thought anyway, and it diverted him so well that he was already listening to the words before he was conscious of the song someone in the night was singing.

"_The proud do not endure, the simple ones are happy_

_La-da-da la-da-da_

_At last the mighty fall and the Spring is so happy_

_La-da-da la-da-da"_

A cold knot formed in his chest when he realized that the voice was female, but not Kagome, Kikyou, or Rin.

And it was close.

"Who's there?" he whispered.

There was no answer. No further sounds came from the room, and outside nothing could be heard at all, except for the occasional, hollow cry of an owl. On bare, silent feet he padded to the door and looked up and down the upstairs hall. There was no sign of movement, not a rustle.

He went back to his bed, determined to rest. Let the house do what it wanted.

"I'm going to sleep," he announced, his breath fogging in front of his mouth. "Do your worst."

Nothing else happened that night, however, and the next morning he left before the sun was up.

Slaughtering the Tsuchigumo took little or no thought. It had become second nature to him. Tamotsu stampeded through them, all the while thinking about the rains, wondering where these demons had come from, where it had all come from. He thought of the possession of Rin and the enigmatic message of Shinme. He wondered if Inuyasha would come to the Hyouden to claim the priestess.

Which one? He was not sure. He had noticed that they did not speak of him.

He thought about Kagome's tales from the future, of all she had said about the well, the sacred jewel, and the struggle against Naraku.

He drove a herd of the monsters into a river and cut them to ribbons. He wondered how long it would take Naraku to find her.

He wondered how long this would go on. Weeks? Months? Years? Would he spend the rest of his life endlessly hunting and killing the same demons? He recalled what Kagome had once said to him about events being stuck in a repeating loop until they fixed it, presumably with Naraku's destruction. Maybe they had failed to heed the warning, or they had lost their chance, and it would be just like this forever.

Tamotsu's thoughts were broken when he saw Rin struggling at the bottom of a pile of dead Tsuchigumo. She was trapped in the shallow water underneath them, her hair billowing around her face like dark seaweed. With a startled exclamation, he began tearing the corpses away, trying to dig her out.

It only took him a second or two to realize that his eyes were playing tricks on him. There was nothing there. His heart was pounding like a steel hammer, ringing again and again in his ears, and his hands were shaking. He raised his eyes and gazed toward the south, trying maybe to see the Hyouden, miles away.

He almost shrugged it off, almost decided he was imagining things, that he needed a vacation. He turned to take up the pursuit of his quarry again.

His hands flew up to cover his eyes before he even realized what was happening. A blinding light had blazed in front of him and then receded again just as quickly. He saw a woman standing in his path. She was not very tall, with dark hair and a face that was beautiful in a clean, simple way. She looked like an ordinary woman.

"Make haste!" she cried. "The Beloved is in danger! Fly, fly now!"

She was gone.

Tamotsu considered for only a second that he was losing his mind, then he decided that there was no good reason to take the chance. He looked around, concentrating his thought on detecting his cousin's presence, and pinned it down in the foothills to the north, only a stone throw away. He flew in that direction without a moment's hesitation. It did not take him long to realize that Sesshoumaru was on the move, and soon he could see him, streaking his way through the sky like a comet, closing in on the Hyouden at great speed. Tamotsu quickened his pace to catch up to him and wondered who had come to warn his cousin.

"This is the warmest part of the day," she said. "Will you take a turn with me in the gardens?"

Mutely, Kohaku nodded and followed her out.

Once outside, the two walked close together. Kikyou recalled their journey to the Hyouden during the rains and she realized how much she had missed him and wondered why she had allowed him to stray for so long.

"I am so very sorry that I let you go for so long. I became absorbed with other things and let you go your own way. But, Kohaku, it must end now."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice and eyes frightened.

"I mean that you can no longer wander alone day and night, avoiding the rest of us. It is just no good, dear one."

That was the first time she had called him that, and the way his eyes avoided hers, the way they filled with tears, she did not overlook it.

"Oh, that," he laughed weakly. "You don't need to worry, Kikyou-sama. I'm fine. I promise."

Kikyou shook her head. "My mind is quite settled on the matter. I know you have to obtain our food, and we are forever grateful for that. But I expect you to spend some time with us every day and to sleep in the house at night."

To Kikyou's surprise, the young man turned pale and was seized with violent trembling.

"I can't!" he cried out, almost choking. "I can't do that!"

"Kohaku-san!" Kikyou was amazed. "What is the matter? What is so upsetting to you? Is it Jaken, or Sesshoumaru? You don't have to worry, they—

He shook his head and took a deep breath.

"It isn't that," he said. "It's her. I can't be around her."

"Who?"

Before he could answer, they heard feet crushing the dead leaves and twigs and both thought that it was Rin, but when they turned they saw a gang of more than half a dozen men. They were, as far as Kikyou could tell, ordinary humans, but they did not look friendly.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "What are you doing here?"

They did not answer. One man, of average build with a scarred face and graying hair, wearing a short sword strapped to his belt, spoke to his companions.

"She is a priestess," he said shortly. "Kill her."

Kikyou flinched and drew herself back.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, her voice a little shrill. "You have no right to be here!"

"This is the home of a great demon lord," Kohaku shouted at them. "You are in serious danger!"

The leader still did not speak to them. He motioned his head toward the house.

"Check inside and kill anyone you find. Then burn it."

Kikyou cast about frantic eyes, searching for a way out, but the men were already upon her. Two of them grabbed her wrists and shoulders and pulled her arms back until her knees buckled and she screamed. Kneeling in the dirt, she raised her head and saw through her hair a man with a long blade standing over her.

"Why are you doing this?"

"All monks, priests, and priestesses are enemies of the peace," he answered in a kind of fevered intonation. "They must be destroyed."

"Stop this!" she heard Kohaku shout. "Don't make me kill you!"

Kikyou struggled to free herself even as the man raised the sword high above his head. Nearby she heard someone say: "Don't let him get away! Grab him!"

Then there were screams, the sounds of breaking and shearing bone, and of blood spraying on the ground. She could smell dust, and winter, and urine and excrement. Before she understood what was happening, her arms were released and her white haori was stained on both sides with splashes of blood.

"Run, Kikyou-sama!"

She looked up and saw Kohaku standing with his chained sickle, dyed red-black. The bodies of the men lay around them in clumps of limbs and heads and piles of intestines. She choked back a wretch.

"Are you okay?" he cried. "Can you walk? Can you run? You must get away from here!"

"No!" Kikyou shouted.

She stood up, and took no more than a moment to center her balance and reign in her senses. She looked around for the leader.

He lay on his back, with a great gash across his chest from armpit to armpit. Everyone else was dead, most sincerely dead, but this man lay gasping out his last breaths, sending up small spray fountains of blood from his mouth. She stood over him.

"I imagine you wish you had the comforts of a priest now," she said bitterly.

He could not speak, but his eyes were still shining with virulent hatred. He moved his right hand slightly toward her, and she saw he was grasping a piece of parchment. As she bent and removed it from his grasp and unrolled it, a popping and cracking sound came from his chest and he ceased breathing.

The parchment was crumpled and smeared with blood, but she could still read most of it.

"Kohaku!" she grabbed his arm and pulled him. "The house! Kagome!"

Tamotsu landed on the parapet on the north side of the house. He came down so hard that he cracked the flagstones. With Sesshoumaru behind him, he tore into the house. They had been hit with the stench of blood almost as soon as they were in sight of the place.

They almost collided with Kikyou and Kohaku in the lower hall. The two humans were wild eyed and panting, and covered with blood. By the smell, Tamotsu knew right away that it was not theirs.

"What's going on? Where is Rin?" Tamotsu demanded.

Kikyou only stared at him and shook her head, her eyes almost blank like dark pools. He sensed that she did not really hear him. The boy motioned for them to follow as they ran toward the steps that led down into the cellar.

"Men attacked us," he panted, "in the garden. I killed them. But I think some went into the house."

The distance to the baths was not great. They all burst in at once.

Water seemed to be everywhere, and the world was suspended in it. Everything played out before him in slow, thick movements. Kagome lay in a pool of blood, naked and on her side, on the cold, wet tiles. The hilt of a dagger protruded from between her shoulder blades. A movement drew Tamotsu's eyes, and he saw someone standing in the pool, holding something under the water. He could see a great fan of black hair above a struggling figure.

Ringing out at once together he heard Kikyou's agonized scream and Sesshoumaru's sword sliding out of its sheath. The assailant took one terrified look at the demon lord bearing down upon him and turned to flee. He made it out of the water before he even noticed his own blood, flaring out like a red flower that bloomed on the walls and floors. Then he collapsed.

The sight of Rin's pitiful form bobbing face down in the water jerked Tamotsu out of his numbed daze. With a cry of anguish, he jumped into the pool, clearing half of it and landing in the middle. Water recoiled from him and edged the tiny girl away. He waded toward her but she seemed to float ever beyond his reach. When he finally had her he pulled her to the floor and held her limp body in his arms. How the world had managed to ruin itself since last he saw her here, in this very room!

He lifted her head. Her face was the color of ashes and her lips were deep blue. Her skin felt cold and hard.

"Come on, kiddo," he pleaded. "Breathe."

Sesshoumaru, his sword dripping with blood and his face grim, stood over him.

"Tamotsu."

"Oh, Sesshoumaru!" his cousin cried. "She's been drowned!"

The horror of that undeniable, permanent word, crushed him like a giant fist, and he began to weep, his shoulders shaking over her ashen face.

"Stop that, you fool!" Sesshoumaru snapped. "Turn her over."

Tamotsu, blinded by tears and nearly incoherent, obeyed without question.

"Press down on her ribs and push up. You must push the water out."

Tamotsu did as he was told.

"Nothing's happening!" he lamented. "It's not working!"

"Keep trying."

At last, he heard Rin gasp and cough. She vomited a large amount of water, then began to cry, a small, weak sound.

Tamotsu hung his head and thanked the gods in relief.

"Kagome-chan," he heard Rin whisper. "Kagome-chan!"

He remembered, and he looked around. He saw that Kikyou was sitting on the floor and holding Kagome's body, just as he had held Rin's, and Kohaku was standing behind her with a grieved expression.

"Kagome-chan!" Rin struggled to rise, but Tamotsu gathered her to him again. He grabbed a nearby robe and draped it over her.

"No, no, stay still here, little bird."

Another movement drew his eye and he saw that Jaken had come into the room. The little demon staggered in, his mouth agape and his eyes bulging, looking around at the scene. A gash on his arm and a slight limp were mute evidence that he had encountered intruders himself. He went toward his lord, who was now standing over Kikyou and Kagome.

Kikyou raised her head. Her face was ravaged with weeping, and at first she could not speak. Her lips were pressed together and drawn back in a grimace of pain. She lowered her head and continued to sob and clasp the girl to her.

At last, she raised her face again. Her disheveled hair hung about her like a veil and her black eyes glittered.

"They killed her, Sesshoumaru," her strained voice could scarce escape her throat. "They think we're the monsters now."

[End of Chapter Twenty-three]

[Next chapter: Iris]


	24. Iris

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Iris **

"_The Felix of your truth will always break it  
and the iris of your eye will always shake it  
and the armies, the armies I have created  
will always hate it  
will always bait you on." – Live_

"Now what?" Kyotou asked. "Do we go north or west?"

He sat with his back to a black and twisted cypress. They had moved well out of earshot of the villagers of belligerents. Miroku still bore the angry marks of ropes on his wrists.

"Well, we were going west because the man who came to your village seemed to come from that direction," Miroku said.

"But according to Suzi-chan," Sango said, "the warrants are coming from the north."

"Right," Miroku began pacing, absently rubbing his wrists. "The question is: which hint is more reliable? Suzi-chan's information came from a little girl in that village, but it seemed to be general knowledge."

"And it wasn't about the messengers, but about the source," Sango added.

"_That's_ the crucial point, I think," Kyotou said. "Instead of chasing down errand boys, we should go right to the source."

Sango and Miroku were silent.

"We've lost much of the day," Momiji said. "Where are we going to sleep?"

She and Suzi were sitting on the ground next to Kyotou. They had divided their loot from the village and each carried a shapeless, canvas sack tied to her shoulders and waist. Miroku had begged them to let him carry the load but they would not hear of it.

"It's sadly very light," Momiji had told him.

Miroku looked to the west, where the steel blue sky was being melted down into an orange pool. Twilight encroached from the east.

"We'll have to find the best shelter we can. We can decide which way to go in the morning."

That night, Momiji, Suzi, and Kyotou lay in the dark, shivering under the paltry protection of young fir trees and listening to the furtive whispers of Sango and Miroku as they debated their course.

"Even if north is how we get to the source," Sango was saying, "you know very well what that means...who it is."

"Yes, of course, but-"

"And then what? What will we do? Do you think we're enough to defeat him?"

"Sango, I...we have to do something. We're running out of time."

Silence.

"What do you mean?"

"The hole, it's getting bigger. I feel the pressure of it. It won't be long now."

"Don't say that!" Sango's whisper was somehow also a wail.

"I'm sorry."

"What can we do?"

"I don't know."

There was silence again, and Momiji, who lay closest to them, could hear the callused hands of the monk caressing his wife's hair.

"I just don't know."

The next morning they were up at first light. They ate a quick breakfast of beans with lumps of stale bread and Kyotou kicked dirt over their tiny cook fire as soon as possible.

"We need to get away from here," he said. "Now that it's light again, those people might take it into their heads to come looking for us."

"Where are we going?" Suzi asked.

Miroku looked at Sango, then sighed and made a slight grimace.

"We're still not sure."

"The time to debate is up, monk," Momiji told him. "We can't stand around here."

"I know, I know," Miroku said, and began pacing again.

After some time, he stood still, biting his lip. He looked at Sango again, then shook his head and looked away.

"I know I've said this before, and I know you didn't agree," he began, "but I can't help but wonder if we shouldn't go back to Edo."

"Miroku-" Sango started, but was interrupted.

"Maybe you should," Momiji said.

They looked at her, puzzled.

"I've been with you two for some time now. You're biggest problem is that you are homeless, rootless. You need somewhere to go. A _clear_ somewhere."

"Which way is Edo from here?" Suzi asked.

"East," Kyotou pointed.

"So what's it going to be?" Momiji prodded Miroku. "North, west, or east?"

Miroku looked in all these directions, but to the east he looked with naked longing. Sango had to divert her eyes from it, knowing that he was reaching back into the past, grasping.

"It looks like-" Momiji started to speak, but stopped, and everyone heard a clear gasp. She pointed to the east, where Kyotou had pointed a moment before.

There had been nothing there but trees and rhododendrons, but now a woman was standing there.

"Oh," Momiji said with a small laugh. "You frightened me. Are you OK? Are you lost?"

"Wait a minute," Kyotou said in a furtive whisper. "Is she from that village? She may run and tell them where we are."

But Miroku didn't think so. The woman was standing still, gazing at them with an unconcerned, melancholy expression. He thought he recognized her, and began moving toward her.

"Sango," he said after a moment. Something in his voice, flat and tense, alerted her. She peered closer at the figure.

"It's Ayame!" she exclaimed. "What in the world is she doing here?"

"I don't know," Miroku murmured. "But something isn't right."

The distance between the five of them and Ayame diminished, though Miroku would swear he did not see her walk.

"Oh dear Buddha," he muttered.

Ayame was here, but she was not here. Her skin was gray and what he at first thought was a crimson scarf was really her throat and chest, torn apart and still gaping and bleeding. Her green eyes shone like foxfire.

Beside him, Sango sank to her knees.

"How can this be?" she asked him. "How can she be dead? How can she be bleeding if she's dead? Why is she here?"

Miroku did not know the answer to these questions, except for the last one. For a terrifying moment his throat and chest collapsed, his mouth tasted of blood and ash and his nostrils inhaled the scent of death and rotting fruit. It passed in an instant, but it left him with the fatalistic conviction that he had proof of why she was here.

"Because it's our fault."

Sango seemed to want to say more, but was not able too. Still on her knees, she began to weep. Behind her, Momiji, Kyotou, and Suzi were frozen in fear and confusion.

"Monk," Kyotou whispered in a strangled voice. "What is this devilry?"

Miroku ignored him.

"Spirit," Miroku called. "Why do you stay on this earth? Why do you not rest? What may I do to aid you?"

He sounded confident enough, but in his heart he wondered if he remembered how to be a monk at all.

_What if I can't do that anymore?_

The spirit of Ayame said nothing, but one long arm extended out and pointed towards the north with straight and firm determination.

Miroku looked that way, but saw nothing in particular. He turned back to the shade.

"What is it?"

She only shook her head and pointed again. This time they all looked, peering into the forest, washed pale gold in the rising sun.

"I don't see anything," Momiji whispered. "What does she want?"

But when they looked back, she was gone.

"Weird," Kyotou commented.

Miroku stared at the spot where the apparition had stood for some time, until the sound of his wife's sobbing broke his absorption.

"Sango," he knelt beside her and put his arms around her shoulders. "She's gone. It's alright."

Sango took deep, shuddering breaths and shook her head.

"It isn't that," she said. "She spoke to me, Miroku. I heard her voice inside my head."

Miroku stared at her, and swallowed hard. He braced himself.

"What did she say?"

"I don't want to say!" Sango cried and shook her head again.

Miroku wanted to know, but also he did not, and more than anything he wanted to stop Sango's crying.

"It's alright, it's alright. You don't have to."

"I beg to differ."

Miroku looked up at Momiji. She was standing with her arms crossed and her dark eyes flashing.

"What?" Miroku asked.

"You heard me. After all this, after all I've been through, after all we've all been through, you _have_ to say. You have no right to hide it."

"No one forced you to be here," Miroku retorted.

Momiji said nothing, but did not back down.

"What the hell is going on?" Kyotou demanded, exasperated.

"No, she's right Miroku," Sango said. "They have the right to know this, no matter how much it hurts us."

"Hurts us?"

Sango wiped her face with her scarf. The others waited in hushed anticipation, but she was quiet for some time, her dark eyes gloomy and distant. She hung her head, and Miroku kept his hands on her shoulders. He did not realize he had been holding his breath, and when she began to speak it seemed to sudden that he was startled.

"Those who are fighting against Naraku do not fight to survive, as some of them think, or even for a higher cause, as you all think, but...but..."

Sango's voice broke and Miroku thought another storm of weeping was coming, but she was still, furrowing her eyebrows as if in concentration, then she went on.

"But you all fight and lose for the same reason: pure and simple pride."

Souta was aware of the headache before anything. The world was dark, hidden behind the orange glare of his eyelids. He heard his own breathing and nothing else. Nothing to see and nothing to hear but, hell, how his head ached. He lay as still as he could, instinct telling him that any movement would cause his head to come clean off and his stomach to land in his shoes.

He could not tell how much time had passed, but at some point he heard more than his own breathing. He heard murmuring voices.

"I'm back."

"Did you find everything?"

"Yep, no problem."

"Thank you."

He heard foot steps and what sounded like the crinkle and rustle of stiff paper. With painful caution, he lifted one eyelid, the one that was not swollen shut.

Someone was standing with his back toward him. He recognized the scarf that wrapped around the head and shoulders. It was the old woman from the street! Why was she in the house? Was he being pilfered?

"Look," someone standing outside his vision spoke to the old woman. "I think he's waking up."

"Oh yeah?"

The old woman's voice was different, and the way she stood and moved, was all wrong somehow, but Souta could not understand it. When she turned around however, his body jerked away in an involuntary flinch, despite the crushing pain in his temple.

"Go easy now. You'll be alright. I'm here to help you."

But Souta was not listening. His one good eye was wide and bulging. Blood rushed in his ears and he forgot the pain. He pushed himself up on his elbows and began to crawl away, backwards.

"Who are you? What is going on? Why are you in my house?"

"Your appearance seems to have shaken him up," the other person said in a laughing tone.

"He's just rattled. He'll come around."

The old woman was standing over him, and Souta could see that there was no woman at all. The figure had straightened, stretched out and up, into a broad-shouldered man, neither young nor old. He peered down at Souta with bright, green eyes. His wealth of hair was coxcomb red and tucked behind ears with prominent points.

"Demon!" Souta shouted, and backed away further.

"Aw, come on," the young man laughed. "I know you've met demons, or half demons, before."

"What are you doing here? Where's my mother and-

An agonizing sickness seized his stomach and Souta screamed.

"Mother!"

He scrambled to his feet. He realized now that he was in the kitchen, and he made for the door that led to the courtyard. Horrid, clinging hands reached out and grabbed his arms and legs and pulled him down.

"Settle down!" the demon shouted. "You're still hurt!"

"Let me go!" Souta tried to get his arms free. He kicked and bit and swung at the air. "I'm not afraid of you! Let me go!"

"Souta, _please_."

Souta's fist had managed to find a handful of hair and he was about to yank it for all he was worth, when he froze.

"How do you know my name?"

"Your sister told me," the man said, wincing. "Now will you let go of my hair, please?"

Souta opened his fist and let the locks escape. He looked down at his palm at the few strands of fine copper that lay across it. Faintly, he remembered pieces of wrinkled drawing paper Kagome gave him once. Some of them had been drawn on, and she pointed out the faces of her friends.

"Shippou," he said, and the word echoed in the kitchen.

"Yeah, that's right. And this is Kagura. She's cool; she's with me."

Souta looked and saw the second person for the same time. It was a woman. She was beautiful, but she looked like an ordinary woman, with straight black hair that fell down her back and eyes calm and brown. She was holding a paper grocery bag and smiling at them. When she saw Souta staring at her, she gave him a wink and lifted her hair to reveal her left ear, as pointed as Shippou's.

The demon put his hand on Souta's shoulder and smiled down on him.

"We're here to look after you."

The demon returned before dawn. Higurashi had not slept for one moment, but she believed the girls had, and that was enough. She was just grateful they had not frozen to death.

By the end of the day, she would feel differently.

He had offered them food, pieces of something that looked like black and twisted leather, but the girls were too frightened, horrified, and disgusted to accept it. Believing in their frailty and not willing to risk his delivery, the demon did not brook this well. The others watched on in terror as Yuka was pinned beneath the beast's knee. She screamed at first, but could not scream once he began stuffing the unknown material into her face, pushing against her mouth and nose until she had to relent and open just to breathe.

"Now," he said, letting the whimpering girl up. "Are all of you going to insist on doing this the hard way?"

Once they had all eaten to the demon's satisfaction, he yanked the long chain that held them together until they were pulled to their feet. As bad as breakfast had been, the hell did not begin until they started to move. The ground was rough and uneven, and they stumbled often. The cold ravaged their hands, feet, and faces. Their throats burned with thirst. It did not take more than one hour for all of them to believe they had reached their limit, but the demon did not let them stop for five. Even then they were only allowed to drink a few mouthfuls of water and rest on the ground, panting and sobbing, for half an hour. The hell began again, and Higurashi prayed for any kind of darkness.

Finally, blessedly, darkness came, and the demon let them stop. He had brought them to a cave. Higurashi had long lost any sense of direction, but now she thought she caught the faint and tangy air of the sea.

Once in the cave, driven to the very back of it, the girls fell to the ground and slept immediately. It would be more accurate to say that they lost consciousness. Higurashi sat with her back to the cave wall, watching the demon build a fire. When that was finished, he kicked each girl until she was awake again and he made them eat.

Ayumi was the one who broke first. The gentle girl's nature had been assaulted in every possible way. The terror of the demon was exacerbated beyond all endurance by the clear knowledge that she was not in her own world. She had listened to Higurashi's stories the night before, but could not believe it, in spite of everything. Now faced with such complete dissolution between her worldview and the apparent new reality, she simply shut down. Eri, Yuka, and Higurashi ate their food in mute compliance but, instead of eating, Ayumi rose to her feet. Weak and feverish, she swayed like a young birch tree. The demon peered at her, and the others looked up at her in alarm.

She tried to move away, but the chain hindered her, but she did not accept this either. She took it in her hands and began yanking on it.

"Ayumi-chan! Stop! Sit down!" Yuka whispered to her.

"No," Ayumi's voice was flat. "I want to go home."

The others stared at her.

"So, she thinks she's funny," the demon growled.

He grabbed her hands and effortless tore them away from the chain.

"No!" she screamed in his ghastly face. "No! I want to go home! NOW!"

She began beating on his face and shaggy chest and shoulders with puny, ineffective fists.

"I'm going home! I'm going home!"

Higurashi imagined herself telling Kagome that her childhood friend was dead.

_Don't be stupid,_ an inner voice admonished her, _you'll never live to do that._

The demon took hold of one fist that flew at his face and, holding it in a vice grip, bent in backwards. Ayumi screamed, her knees buckled out from under her, and her fingers flailed out. In a slow, casual movement, the demon pulled the hand toward his mouth and bit the left ring finger, taking it off in one snap.

Ayumi screamed again, and this time the others screamed with her, as though the pain had been dealt to all of them.

"That should settle you down," the demon said, and as he spoke, blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth.

Higurashi gagged.

Ayumi fell to the cave floor, a quivering figure that seemed to have no shape left in it.

The monster turned his back on them and left the cave. As soon as he was gone, Eri and Yuka crawled to their friend.

"Ayumi! Oh, Ayumi-chan!" they cried.

Higurashi held the sobbing, trembling girl, while Yuka tore a strip of fabric from her shirt and wrapped it around the wound as best as she could.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Higurashi chanted as she rocked the girl.

None of them slept that night, though Ayumi drifted in and out of consciousness. Despite their exhaustion, the others did not dare close their eyes. They huddled around their wounded friend and tried to comfort her, though they in truth had no real comfort to give.

The true comfort came with the dawn. They had dreaded its coming, but the gradual lightening of the cave did not bring with it the demon. They waited for his appearance, but they ended up waiting out the entire day, watching as the gloom grew around them again, but with no demon. That night they did sleep, the time putting enough distance between them and their terror. Dawn broke again and they slept through it. When they awoke, the day was bright and well along but still, no demon. Night spread its blanket over the cave again, but now their only company were the specters of hunger and thirst, but still, no demon.

The initial assault had taken them by surprise, and the sheer magnitude of the enemy's numbers had at first overwhelmed them. But numbers were the only thing working against them. The Tsuchigumo fought with the mindless swarming of hive insects. Kouga's men were seasoned, trained, and cohesive soldiers. Their tactics were so ingrained that they had scant need of commanders. Thus, after an immediate and bloody flinch, the entire force of wolf demons shuddered, inhaled, and lashed out.

By midday they had pushed the monsters away from the Tenryu River and back north towards the Hakusan Mountains. Long before that, Kouga had lost count of how many he had killed. The elation of victory was a bright, hot sail behind him and under him, but, in spite of that, he was troubled. The Tsuchigumo had no smell, no sense of demonic energy, no presence of good or evil. They were like grasping, clawing, biting stones. He puzzled over this even as he tore through them like a razoe cyclone.

As his forces harried the Tsuchigumo further into the hills, Kouga heard shouts of dismay collecting around him, then turning over to exclamations of encouragement and celebration.

"What's going on?" he called to Ginta.

"I'll go look!"

Ginta snapped the neck of one more Tsuchigumo and ran around others, jumping over their uncomprehending heads. Kouga kept fighting. Even though the pests were easy to kill, there were just so goddamn many of them. He was glad of his jewel shards.

Only a few minutes passed before Ginta returned, running up to him and panting.

"Kouga!" he shouted. "There's another army. The monsters are pinned between us and them!"

Kouga grinned.

"Let's crush them into the dust then!"

Ginta grinned back.

The whole nasty business did not take long, which was a blessing because the days were now the shortest they would be all year. The sun was already setting when the last few monsters were being chased into the forests on the north side of the mountain chain. Kouga looked around and decided that others could manage what little work was left. He set out to find the leaders of the other army.

He did not doubt that the presence of the other army had been helpful, if only a little. They were only humans, however, and they were clearly more grateful for Kouga's men than the other way around.

He saw a man with a thoughtful, even grim face, and thin shoulders, speaking to a group with some authority.

"Hey there!" he called.

The man turned and when Kouga was closer, he bowed.

"You're pretty polite with demons, human," he said.

"It comes with experience," the man answered coolly. "May I help you with something?"

"I'm looking for your leader."

The man's eyes narrowed. "You are not looking for a fight, I hope."

"That depends," Kouga answered bluntly. "But I doubt it. Right now, I just want to talk to him."

"Them," the man corrected. Then he looked around, looking mostly in the air.

"I don't see Shippou-sama," he murmured, mostly to himself.

He turned back to Kouga, and his expression became concerned.

"My lord, are you ill? You have gone very pale."

"Did...did you say SHIPPOU?"

"Yes, my lord."

"It must be another Shippou," Kouga said to himself. "It has to be."

"My lord?"

"This Shippou," Kouga asked, "what does he look like?"

The man was about to answer, when a sound over their heads interrupted him. It was a metallic and harsh cry, and it damn near shook the leaves off the trees.

"Ah," the man said with satisfaction. "You can see for yourself."

He pointed up. "There he is."

Kouga looked up in amazement. It was a hawk, or some kind of falcon. That was ordinary enough, but the creature was the size of a house! The shade of its wings blotted out the sun as it passed over their heads.

"Oh yeah. That is definitely another Shippou."

The bird turned circles for a moment, then its spirals begin a downward drift. Just as Kouga was about to jump out of the way, lest its talons land on his head, the air wavered and the wings and talons were gone. There was just a young man standing on the grass, walking towards the helpful human with a resolute expression. At first, he did not see Kouga.

But Kouga saw him.

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled.

Shippou whirled around, then his eyes widened.

"Kouga?" he exclaimed, then laughed. "Kouga! It's great to see you!"

He ran to him and grabbed both his arms, almost jumping up and down with delight. Kouga stared at him, gaping openly. At last, he shook his head, knocking the sides a bit with the heel of one hand.

"I think I need to sit down."

As a rule, Kagura and Shippou did not fight side by side. It happened, of course, in the typical unpredictable disorder of battle, but as far as they were able they tried to order things otherwise. It was better to spread their strength across the whole army, and to make sure there was more than one person to look for in case of crisis.

Shippou transformed and set himself at the western spearhead. Kagura lifted herself into the air, with the sighing blessing of the wind, as she always did, and veered away east. The houses knew how to order themselves.

In this way, the Resistance was always a two-front force. Since it was fairly easy for Kagura and Shippou to reconnect and communicate if needed, the fronts could shift and turn on the head of a pin.

Kagura understood all of this. The one thing about which she was completely in the dark was the extent to which Shippou made himself sick with worry over her. She did not know that he accepted their separation as a necessary tactic, but that in his heart he hated it, and dreaded it each day. She was oblivious to his anxiety, and always would be.

Tactically speaking, this day was going to be different than most days. The first thing Kagura did, as always, was to fly ahead and ascertain, as quickly as possible, the position of the enemy. On his side, Shippou did the same. Their overall goal was usually to drive the enemy north, just because they had seemed to come from this direction. Today was different, however, because a large number of Tsuchigumo had broken away and were too far south and west. Driving them back towards the north would be too costly. They had decided the night before that they would drive them into the river instead. Kagura's forces, having the higher ground, would provide most of that pressure, and Shippou's men would attempt to circle around and attack the monsters from the side. It was hoped that the trapped Tsuchigumo would be overwhelmed.

Kagura stood on a large shelf of rock that jutted out from the hillside like a pugnacious jaw. Looking down, she could see the swarming Tsuchigumo coming up the slopes. The men behind her drew their weapons and shifted on their feet, stamping them in the cold. Kagura waited until the monsters were about thirty feet away. In her right hand, she held a metal sphere that gleamed white under the winter sun. When she judged that the enemy was at the best distance, she murmured, "Go", and the ball disappeared. It reappeared amidst the enemy. There was a detonation, like a loud, stony crack, and Tsuchigumo fell like scythed wheat.

Behind her, a thick-bodied man with a black braid hanging from his crown, whom everyone called Fukushima-san, threw something else into the remaining spider-demons. There was a second explosion, this one with more smoke and fire. Kagura did not understand these types of weapons, but she didn't need to; they did the job. The Tsuchigumo, reeling from the first attack, lost what little cohesion they had and scattered like confused ants.

That was the signal. The mass of men behind Kagura gave a great yell and poured down the slope. Kagura lifted her staff above her head and, with a cry, went with them. The men stabbed and sliced, and Kagura rent the enemy apart with air she could now slice as keenly as a knife. She kept a lookout for men in trouble. As she popped Tsuchigumo like burnt firecrackers, she occasionally extinguished one that was about to finish off one of her fighters. She had no trouble in keeping the damage precisely contained, and she thought to herself, even as she kept up the bloody work, _there really is no substitute for experience._

As they pushed the vermin closer to the river, a commotion of confusion arose above the general clamor. Kagura lifted herself above the fray to get a better view, but she could only make out an uproar of dust and raised voices, and the general sense of exasperation that came with a lack of information on a battlefield.

"Kagura-sama," Fukushima called, "can you see anything?"

Kagura craned her neck and squinted, then shook her head. "No, nothing. Follow me!"

Without waiting for a response, she rose higher and soared in the direction of the river. Fukushima, having fought beside Kagura for some time now, followed her shadow through the surrounding fray without difficulty. By the time he caught up with her, she had landed and was crouching behind some evergreen shrubs. When she caught site of him, she motioned for him to join her.

"Quiet!" she whispered as he knelt beside her. "He has sharp ears."

"Who?"

"Look!"

The banks of the river were wide and low, and lined with the shrubs that were now concealing the two of them. Standing in this clearing were a few men that Fukushima recognized as fellow members of the Resistance. Shippou-sama was also there. He was talking to men that Fukushima had never seen before.

"His name is Kouga," she said. "He is a leader of the wolf demons."

"More demons," Fukushima muttered.

"Yes, more demons."

"Are they friends of Shippou-sama?"

"Yes, old friends." Kagura whispered. "We're in luck. It looks like they're fighting the Tsuchigumo."

"Why aren't we going to greet them?"

"He's Shippou's friend. Not mine."

Fukushima gave her a sharp glance.

"It's complicated," Kagura told him. "Just stay here and stay quiet until he leaves."

The two fell silent and watched the conversation. They were too far away to hear any of the words. The lead wolf demon, the one Kagura had called Kouga, was agitated, pacing and waving his arms. Shippou stood shaking his head and spreading his arms in a sort of conciliatory gesture. Then the wolf demon turned sharply and almost ran to Shippou, grabbing his shoulders. The men who stood by stirred and reached for the weapons. Fukushima did likewise, but Kagura put a hand on his arm.

"Wait."

Shippou's eyes had widened, but he did not seem frightened. Fukushima relaxed. The wolf demon suddenly tore away from Shippou and left hurriedly, running toward the river and across it, towards the south.

"He's gone," Kagura said. "Let's go find out what happened."

As they approached Shippou, Fukushima noticed that the fighting had stopped. He knew that Tsuchigumo were still being chased down, but the violence had diminished out to the peripheries of the armies. Where they stood, there were only dead bodies, and some men hurrying about, checking for signs of life among the fallen.

Shippou did not seem to notice their approach at first. He stood staring in the direction that the wolf demon had departed, his eyes unfocused.

"Hey, what did he say?" Kagura asked.

"Oh," Shippou turned to them and smiled. "Hi, Kagura. Fukushima-san."

"Well?" Kagura persisted.

"We can talk about it in a minute. I need to find out how we did. Do you have any names today?"

"Of course," Kagura answered. "But not too many. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. We had the high ground."

Shippou reached into his fur vest and removed a crumpled and smudged piece of paper. It had been folded and refolded many times and was crisscrossed with black creases.

"Let me do that, Shippou-sama," Fukushima said.

Shippou looked up at him, then nodded. "Alright. Get as many as you can."

"I know, my lord. I'll do my best."

He turned and left. When he was out of earshot, Kagura returned her gaze to Shippou.

"Will you tell me now?"

"Tell you what?"

Kagura rolled her eyes. "Shippou!" she exclaimed in vexation.

"Oh, right," Shippou's gazed strayed to that direction again. Kagura got the sudden impression that he wanted to follow the wolf demon.

"He kinda flipped out when I told him about what happened that day, on the Plataea. He ran off, saying he was going to find Kagome."

"What? Where is going to look?"

"He didn't say. Knowing him, he has no idea."

"That's not exactly brilliant."

Shippou shrugged. "Kouga has always been erratic, especially when it comes to Kagome."

"Oh?"

"Well yeah, you know..."

Kagura gave him a blank look which by now she had perfected. It was the most efficient way for her to let Shippou know she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Kouga's always said he was in love with Kagome, that he intended to marry her someday."

Kagura laughed. "Someday? When is that exactly?"

"That's a good question."

"Did you tell him about me?"

Shippou was silent and looked away.

"I didn't think you would."

Shippou seemed to take this as an accusation. "You could have come out of hiding," he declared, "instead of spying on us from the bushes."

"But I didn't," Kagura answered him coolly, "just like you didn't saying anything."

"Anyway," Shippou waved it aside. "It doesn't matter. He left his men here and he'll be back. He'll find out eventually."

"He left his men here? To fight with us?"

"That's what he said." When he saw Kagura's worried expression, he added. "None of them will recognize you. I think he took Ginta and Hakkaku with him, and besides, you're different now."

Kagura looked around and she saw that the wounded were being tended by women who had come out of the forest.

"It looks like the fighting is done for the day," she said.

"Good. I'm damn tired."

"You want to look for a place to make camp?"

Shippou sighed and his shoulders sagged. "Guess we should."

He could hear the old machine still running, even when he slept. Its wheels and gears turned out outrage; its dies stamped plates of hatred into his brain. Sometimes he wondered why he was not allowed to be happy, but it was fleeting because it was a thought he would not allow himself to have.

Having shed the burden of pretending to be human, he absconded to his final lair. Here, it would all be decided, one way or the other. He had only to wait. All the preparations had been done long ago. The Tchuchigumo, the demon Botsuraku, and many other machinations and devices besides. He was sure he had overlooked nothing.

"I hope they appreciate all that I do for them," Naraku murmured into the loving darkness.

By sunset, Sango estimated that they had covered about fifteen miles. Not a bad feat, considering they were starved and frozen near to death. All the while, they had kept a steady course north.

_Pure and simple pride._

They had not spoken of that again. They stopped at midday and choked down stale bread and rested for an hour in complete silence. Every shadow that danced under the swaying trees, every scrawny, brown bird that darted in and out of the brush, made her flinch. She never stopped expecting Ayame to appear before her again, with desolate eyes and pitiful helplessness.

_Am I to blame? Where was I wrong?_

Five years. Five years spent hunting after Naraku. Five years and not a damn thing had changed. Even as she walked behind her husband, she looked down at her hand. Was it older? She couldn't tell.

_Miroku is my husband now. I'm not a virgin. That's different._

Only it wasn't. It seemed to her now, looking back, that Miroku had always been her husband, they just hadn't lain together. And why hadn't they?

_Pure and simple pride._

Sango flinched again. That wasn't true. There were reasons, good reasons. And what of it, anyway? What had that to do with Ayame? If Ayame blamed them for her death, it had to be because they had failed to kill Naraku. And how had pride prevented that?

She could not figure that part out.

The days were short and the night came on early. They sought shelter between large chunks of gray stone that stuck out of a hillside like craggy teeth. The dark grew around them like an ocean and they sat in silence, staring at the red fire and shivering in the shabby blankets that wrapped around their shoulders. The winter night was bitter and still. Even if there had been anything to listen to, they would not have heard it over the noise of things unsaid.

Sango curled up inside of herself and went to sleep.

The next day was bright and cold, like every other day. Sango tried to remember how long they had been traveling, but was dismayed to discover she had lost count, not only of the days since they left Momiji's village, but of all the days before. She not only had no idea what day it was, she had no idea what month it was.

_How long can this go on?_

They pressed on north, walking in single file over the windswept hills. Conversation between them had evaporated, leaving behind a towering and oppressive silence. Sango listened every moment to their thoughts, which blared with brassy forcefulness in her ears.

_Why are we here?_

_Where are we going?_

_What will we do when we get there?_

_What did she mean, pure and simple pride?_

Sango cringed and swallowed her tears.

_What did she mean?_

When the sun sank low behind the trees again they settled for an overturned cypress as shelter, and still they said nothing. The silence grew as much as the dark. By the time the slow creep of dawn turned the air to silver and they ate their meager rations over a puny fire, Sango could no longer bear it. She took in a deep breath and was about to scream.

_It's my fault! It was all my fault! I admit it and I'm sorry!_

She was stopped before a single sound came from her throat. The still morning air, all that damn quiet, was mercifully broken for her. A strange crack, loud but far away, boomed once, and was followed by a second detonation, just as far away. The sounds were too distant to be alarming, but the travelers raised their heads and looked about in confusion.

"What was that?" Momiji was the first to ask.

"I have no idea," Kyotou answered, still looking around. "It wasn't natural."

"I think it came from that way," Sango pointed to the west.

"Hold on a minute," Miroku said.

He started to climb the upturned roots of the tree that had been sheltering them.

"What are you going to do?" Sango asked him.

"Try to get a better look."

When he had reached the highest point, he leaned out and grabbed a limb from a nearby tree. Once both hands were holding it, he swung out away from the stump and hung there in the air. Slowly, he lifted his legs and brought his knees up, almost to his upside down face. Hooking his legs over the same limb, his arms let go and now he dangled by his knees.

"What on earth are you doing?" Kyotou laughed.

"I'm climbing a tree," Miroku answered in a serious, matter-of-fact tone.

He swung on the limb until he could swing high enough to get to a higher limb. In a few short moments and maneuvers, he was able to put his feet down on the lowest limb. Then it was simply a matter of climbing up the tree like a crooked ladder.

"Can you see anything?" Momiji called up.

"Not yet, there's still too much-"

His foot slipped, followed by the rest of him, when a limb cracked and split under his weight. He did not sink more than a foot or so before he caught himself, but this was enough to cause cries of dismay to come from Suzi and Sango. Sango ran to the base of the tree.

"Miroku!"

"It's OK, I'm fine."

"Oh, please be careful."

Miroku stopped climbing and craned his neck, peering through the leaves.

"All I can see is some dust, maybe from a battle or something like that," he announced. "It must be at least ten miles away."

"Then we don't need to worry about it," Kyotou said. "Now get down from there before you break your neck."

"It looked big," Miroku said to Sango when he had two feet on the ground again.

"It doesn't concern us," Kyotou insisted. "There's always fighting going on, even in the best of times. No doubt it's worse now."

"Why is that, Kyotou-sama?" Suzi asked him.

"Well, after everything that's happened," Kyotou made a vague gesture. "Things just fall apart. People don't deal with disorder well."

"The morning is wearing on," Momiji said.

"Right," Miroku dusted bark and leaves off his sleeves and pants. "We should get moving."

"What did she mean?" Suzi asked suddenly.

They all stopped to look at her.

"What?" Sango asked.

"What did she mean?" the girl repeated, her face shy but intent. "What did she mean by 'pure and simple pride'?"

Sango looked at Miroku. When she saw his eyes she knew he was as scared of it as she was, and she berated herself for not noticing it. She reached for his hand and squeezed it.

They were silent, staring at each other while the other three stared at them.

"The...the morning is wearing on," Miroku stammered. "Let's go."

Kyotou and Momiji exchanged glances, but said nothing. Suzi did not speak again that day.

That night, they camped again, and this time there was not even the comfort of a small fire because they could not find anything to burn. They huddled together with little or no space between them, Miroku and Kyotou manfully taking the ends of their row of bodies.

"You should answer us," Momiji whispered.

Sang and Miroku did not stir, but Miroku whispered back.

"I know. Go to sleep."

They tried to sleep, tried to focus on the dark rather than the biting cold and gnawing hunger. Around them, the world was so quiet. How loud can silence get?

Sango would have preferred the quiet to what happened next. Out of the dark trees a woman's voice floated, high pitched and eerily unbodied.

"_The proud do not endure, the simple ones are happy_

_La-da-da la-da-da_

_At last the mighty fall and the Spring is so happy_

_La-da-da la-da-da"_

The last note trailed off and sank into the call of a lonely dove, fading away into the freezing night.

The next thing Sango heard was sobbing. At first a thrill of fear seized her.

_Oh god,_ she thought, almost prayed,_ she's crying! Ayame is crying!_

But it was Suzi who was weeping, crying like a frightened child in the dark because, as Sango had to remind herself, she was a frightened child in the dark.

"Hush child," she heard Momiji whisper. "I won't let anything happen to you. Hush. It's alright."

Sango squeezed her eyes shut and pretended not to hear them.

The next morning, after they had eaten their breakfast and made ready to began walking again, Suzi stood up and clenched her fists at her side.

"I want to go home," she announced.

They stared at her, then looked at each other.

"Suzi-chan," Momiji said gently, "we can't go back."

"Then let's go somewhere else," Suzi's voice was desperate. "Let's find somewhere else to live. I don't want to do this anymore."

No one could think of anything to say. Sango and Miroku looked away, then down at their feet.

"If you won't," the little girl declared. "Then I will. There must be village nearby somewhere. I'll tell them I lost my parents in the rains. Maybe they'll take me in."

"Suzi-chan," Momiji came to take her hand, but the girl snatched it away. Momiji stared at her for a moment, then continued.

"You don't want to do that," she said. "People aren't kind to orphans, and a girl your age..."

She left it hanging.

"I don't care," Suzi said. "Even if I end up as someone's concubine, it'd be better than this."

Momiji's expression became stern. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

Suzi shook her head. "I'm doing it."

"No, you're not," Momiji replied.

"You have nothing to do with it!" Suzi shouted at her. "If you want to follow these...these strangers, then go ahead. I can't stop you and you can't stop me. You're not my mother!"

Momiji drew herself up, her eyes flashing, as though she had been slapped across the cheek. She drew a breath to retort.

"That's enough," Miroku said, his voice pained. "This is wrong. It's unseemly."

Momiji glared at him. "This isn't your concern."

"No," he sighed. "No it isn't. Suzi-chan is right. We are strangers."

Momiji's eyes widened. "That's not true! Look how far we've come together."

Sango came to Miroku's side and touched his cheek. She looked into his eyes and nodded.

"Suzi-chan is right," she said. "At the next village, you guys should stay."

Kyotou started. "Now, wait a minute-"

"I haven't gone through all that I did, to keep you alive, just to-" Momiji started.

"Yes! And we're grateful," Sango said. "But you've done more than enough. It's time to end this."

"The three of you," Miroku told them, "can tell everyone you're a family. Leave the priestess business behind you. No one will know and no will hunt you, like they're hunting us."

"NO!" Momiji stomped her foot. "I will NOT. I will not leave you to such a life. I...I..."

She choked back tears.

"I can't explain it, but I know my destiny lies on the road with you. And besides, I will not turn my back on being a priestess. I have dedicated my whole life to it. I gave up a sister, who I loved more than life itself, for it. I gave up everything for it!"

Miroku's shoulders slumped, and Sango sighed. She knew now that Momiji would never be persuaded. _Such determination,_ she thought, _how can she throw herself into it like this?_

_She doesn't know any better, _an inner voice responded. _She doesn't know how bad it can get._

"I will not run and hide, living out my life in obscurity. I will not!"

"Not even for me?" Kyotou asked, his voice odd, strained and soft.

And that was it. That was what had hung in the air over them since they had undertook this journey. It wasn't the directionless of the journey itself, or the disturbing visits from Ayame. It was this. It had been suspended over them like a suffocating, glass jar, and now the hammer had come down upon it. It cracked everywhere in blazing light.

Sango wanted to disappear.

Momiji stared at him, frozen. Sango knew that she was shocked, that she had believed Kyotou would never break some unspoken commandment that existed between them. Only that wasn't true at all. He had broken it a dozen times since they had been reunited after the rains. He broke it by seeking her out, by protecting her from his villagers including his own wife, by leaving with her that night. He broke it by sleeping next to her every night, never touching her but content to breath in the scent of her hair.

Sango looked at Miroku, but he did not notice her glance. He was gazing at the two of them with rapt attention. She saw that Suzi was doing the same. Sango knew that the three of them should leave, but she could not think of a decent way to make that happen.

"You and your priesthood," Kyotou said. "What has it gotten you?"

"Stop it," Momiji's eyes darted about, looking at the others. "Stop this."

"Nothing!" he answered. "Do you ever wonder what you _could_ have had?"

"Shut up, Kyotou!" she shouted and placed her hands over her ears.

"Oh, I'm glad to see we've dropped that _-sama _nonsense now. What a sham, right?"

Momiji didn't answer. Tears left glistening tracks down her cheeks and chin.

"You know I'm right. We could've had it all. Now's your chance and you still won't budge."

"Kyotou," Momiji managed to say, her voice quaking.

Kyotou threw up his arms and made a sound of exasperated disgust.

"It's my own foolishness, I guess. I guess it's too late to make it right."

"Kyotou-sama, please," Miroku started, but couldn't bring himself to say anything else.

Kyotou ignored him.

"The real truth about it is," he said with a tone of terrible finality, "if you don't love me now, you will never love me again."

"Why won't you tell me? You _have_ to tell me!"

"Souta, I told you, I can't."

They were still in the kitchen. Shippou sat at the table, eating potato chips. Souta wasn't sure where the other was, the one called Kagura. She had wondered off into other parts of the house. He sat in another chair, holding an ice pack against his temple. They had needed to push stacks of books around, rearranging them, to clear spaces to sit.

"Let me get this straight," he said. "Someone sent you here to make sure I was OK."

"That's right."

"But they won't let you tell me anything about my mother, Yuka and the others, or my sister?"

Shippou sighed and shrugged in a helpless gesture.

"That doesn't make any sense. How can I be 'OK', if I don't know if my family is alive or dead?"

"OK, now _that_ I can tell you," Shippou dusted crumbs from his fingers. "They are alive."

"But that monster-"

"Look, that's all I can say. They are alive."

"For now."

Shippou was silent.

"How did you get here? How did that monster get here? Inu-no-oniichan and Kagome are the only ones who can go through the well."

"Do you always call Inuyasha that?" Shippou knitted his brows.

"Yeah, so?"

"No, it's cute."

"Hey, don't make fun of me!" Souta yelled.

"I'm not!" Shippou raised his hands. "Geez you're touchy. As hotheaded as your sister."

"Stop trying to change the subject," Souta said. "How did you get through the well?"

Shippou shook his head and said nothing.

"OK, fine," Souta said after waiting a few minutes. "Maybe, since it's a free-for-all now, I can go through too!"

He stood up and walked toward the door that led to the courtyard.

"Hey," Shippou called after him. "I told you you're not well yet. You need to rest."

The screen door slammed shut. Shippou pushed the crinkling bag of chips away and stood up, swearing under his breath. He followed Souta outside. By the time he caught up to him, he was already climbing down into the well.

"Souta," he called. "Come back."

"You may know my sister, but you don't know me. Don't call me just 'Souta'."

Souta was near the bottom now, holding on to a rope that was tied to a beam above him. He looked up and saw that Shippou was peering down at him over the lip of the well. Another face appeared beside his.

"He calls everybody by their name like that," Kagura told him. "Always has."

"Just like Inuyasha," Souta muttered.

"You're not the first to say that," Shippou said. "Now come back up. It's cold out here. It's not good for you."

Souta's bare and freezing feet landed on the soft earth at the bottom of the well. He stood there, looking around, not sure what he was expecting.

"Well?" he called up. "You still won't tell me how you did it?"

"Souta, come on," was all Shippou would say.

"Why is it that everybody in creation can go through this damn well but me? What am I being punished for?"

"We were all punished in some way!" Shippou shouted at him. "Now climb out or, I swear, I'll come down there and get you."

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Souta asked. "Why don't you come down here then?"

Shippou moved to climb over the lip of the well, but stopped.

"You think that if I come down, something will happen and the well will open up, somehow letting you hijack your way through?"

Souta stared up at him, silent.

"Fine. If this is the only way." Shippou leaped over the edge and down into the well, landing a few inches in front of Souta.

"See," he said, "nothing."

"How did you know it would do nothing?" Souta asked him.

Shippou shrugged and looked away. "Do you want me to carry you up or not?"

"Have you tried it before?" Souta whispered.

Shippou said nothing, but Souta heard Kagura sigh.

"Oh sweet heaven," he shuddered.

_We were all punished._

"You never came through the well, did you?"

Souta tried to remember all the times he had seen that old woman near his home. He realized he could not recall the first time he had seen her.

"How long have you been waiting here?" he demanded. "How long have you been watching my family? How long?"

"Always! Alright? Always," Shippou's eyes shone. "I was here before you were born. I was there when you _were_ born. You have no idea, you could not possibly fathom, how long I waited for it."

Souta began to tremble.

"Oh sweet heaven," he repeated.

"Wait," he exclaimed suddenly. "If you're here, that means you survived. If you survived then..."

He trailed away. Shippou's eyes were hard and distant.

"Unless...you came here because you knew no one was coming back through this well, that I'd be alone for good."

"For the last time," Shippou gritted his teeth. "I can't-

"Why?" Souta all but screamed in his face. "Why?"

"If you come up, and promise to rest, I'll tell you why."

"Oh for cripes sake," Souta threw his arms in the air. "Fine, I'll rest if you'll tell me. And since you want me to take it so easy, you can carry me out."

"No problem."

"We can't stay here anymore," Yuka, knelling next to her, put her hand on Higurashi's shoulder.

"I know, but..."

"The demon has been gone for three days. Either he will come back and catch us leaving, or find us gone and hunt us down. It doesn't matter because we'll be dead anyway. There's no food left and Ayumi is getting worse."

Higurashi looked over to where Eri was hold the ailing girl. They had wrapped cloth around the wound, and periodically they washed it with the freezing water that trickled down the cave walls, but could do nothing else. Now she had stopped speaking, and her eyes stared but saw nothing. Only because of her shallow breathing and constant trembling did they know she was alive.

Higurashi knew with cold certainty that if Ayumi perished, she would only be the first. None of them were equipped to survive the elements.

"At least we have shelter here," she said to Yuka, whispering. "The demon drove us for days. We'll never make it back that far, even if we knew which way to go."

"Maybe we can find help nearby."

Higurashi shook her head. "That would be taking a big chance."

"I think we have to."

Higurashi said nothing more. They huddled near the fire, which they had kept going, desperately afraid it would go out. Higurashi stared at the cave wall and wondered how long it would take them to starve to death.

"I can't let it come to that," she murmured.

"What?" Yuka looked up.

"Nothing, I was just-"

She had turned to face her, but her movements were hindered by the pack she still had strapped to her shoulders.

"Why do I still have this thing," she said in disgust.

"What's in it anyway?"

"Just books," Higurashi answered. "They don't mean anything now."

Her eyes widened. "Wait!"

She pulled the straps apart and off her back, swinging the pack around to her lap. She yanked the zippers opens and began pulling objects out. At first there were only books and pens and a couple of pads of paper. Then her digging fingers hit something that crinkled and rustled. Her hand emerged clutching a shiny bag.

"Look!" she cried. "They were stuffed down in here the whole time!"

"What is it?"

Higurashi spilled the contents of the bag out on her lap. What fell were individually wrapped onigiri, some plain, others with assorted stuffing.

"Oh thanks the gods above!" Yuka cried, clutching at the precious treasure.

"Wait," Higurashi grabbed her hand. "We must be careful. Here, take two, and give them to Eri and Ayumi, and take one for yourself."

Yuka took three of the rice balls and started to crawl away. Higurashi clasped her arm.

"Make sure she eats it!"

Yuka nodded and turned away.

Higurashi stuffed one of them into her mouth in just a few bites. Her stomach, her especially her aching limbs, begged for more, but she quickly jammed the remaining onigiri into the bag and put it back in the very bottom of the her yellow backpack.

_Out of sight, out of mind,_ she thought, but hardly believed.

As she swallowed the very last grain of rice, Higurashi continued to search through the bag and was overjoyed to find a pack of matches, a small pocketknife, and a miniature flashlight. This bag had been Kagome's at one point, and she realized with a kind of sick fascination that it had probably been to the Feudal Era before.

It was almost funny.

She took hold of one of the pads of paper and began tearing out the blank sheets for fuel for the fire. They would at least start their journey into the wild with warm fingers and food in their bellies.

After stoking the fire, Higurashi walked out of the cave for the first time. She winced and grimaced under the dazzling sun. With her right hand she shaded her eyes and scanned the surroundings. The mouth of the cave opened to a short shelf of rock. Tip toeing toward it, she found that the edge was a sheer face that dropped a good forty or fifty feet. Scrawny fir trees grew at the bottom. She shivered when a gust of wind barreled up the slope. Pulling her jacket front close, she stood and listened, straining her ears to pick up any sound. The sound she was listening for, and the one she truly feared, was the slobbering breath and shuffling stampede of the demon, returning for them.

All she did hear, however, was the faint sound of rushing water.

"There," she murmured, "we need to go that way."

Not only would they need water to drink, but people tended to settle around water. After her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, she judged that it was about mid-morning. She returned to the cave, its darkness and lack of cold wind remarkable to her now. She went to Ayumi and knelt beside her.

"Do you think you can walk?"

Ayumi's face was whiter than marble, but her eyes were more focused. She licked her lips and nodded feebly.

"I can try," she whispered. "I feel a little better now."

"Good. We're going to get you out of here." Higurashi looked around. "OK ladies, listen up. We're leaving, right now."

"We have a little bit of food, and some matches," she continued. "I found water outside. We will follow it."

"To where?" Eri asked.

"Either home, or to friendly shelter. Whichever comes first."

The most difficult part was just getting away from the cave. Outside the mouth, a ledge ribboned around the hill and down into the valley. Therefore, they were not required to scale down the rock face, as Higurashi had most feared. Such a feat would have been near impossible with Ayumi. As it was, they struggled enough, because the path of bare and jagged rock, while not sheer, was still steep. At the bottom they found a shaded glen, with soft and silty earth, and grown over with tall reeds. It looked like the bed of a dried stream. By the time they reached it, they were forced to stop and rest for the night.

These women had spent their lives in the orange-lit embrace of the city. They were accustomed to security, to cameras and emergency phones, to eating food out of containers and grocery stores. Still, that night, spent under the stars that winked at them behind the black tree limbs, with all its terrifying sounds, its vast emptiness, that night was not so bad. At least, there was no demon.

The next morning, however, some of Higurashi's optimism evaporated. Ayumi had taken a turn for the worse in the night, and woke up feverish and wan. They fed her and dressed her wounds, but it was clear she could not walk on her own. They debated attempting to keep moving and waiting a day or so for Ayumi to get better. The specter of starvation, of the demon's return, of Ayumi not ever getting better, all outweighed the risks of moving. On the second day of their journey without the demon, they took turns helping Ayumi to walk, holding her up over one shoulder. In this way, their progress was sluggish. By the end of the day, Higurashi guessed they had not come more than four miles. It was probably more like three.

_Still,_ she said to herself, _it was better than nothing. There's still hope._

The third day passed much the same as the second had, and then the fourth, and then the fifth. Their rations were running low, but they were still eating something everyday and they still had water. Ayumi was not getting any better, but it did not appear she was getting any worse.

On the fifth night, Higurashi built the fire with extreme care. Every strike of the matchbook had to count. There were only four matches left.

As they crowded together around the fire, Higurashi thanked her good fortune that they had at least been taken while wearing coats and good shoes. It was hardly enough against the cruel winter, but it was better than it could have been.

"What was that?" Eri hissed.

The girls said something like this at least five times before going to sleep each night, but Higurashi never ignored it. She did not look it, but she was just as jumpy as they were.

Besides, this time, she had heard it too. It sounded strange, almost like someone was running toward them, but more like they were flying. There was a rustle of leaves and whirl of wind. One of the girls, Yuka she thought, cried out.

"Demon!"

Kouga was out of his mind. This, anyway, was what Ginta thought. He had no idea what the kitsune, Shippou, had said to him, but whatever it was had made Kouga batshit crazy. He had barked a few orders at his men, left them to Shippou, and grabbed Ginta and Hakkaku. They left right away, running like mad tornadoes to the south. He would not say where they were going and he let them rest only for a few minutes two, maybe three times.

They tried asking him what he had learned to make him so frantic, but they were too out of breath. By the time they recovered enough air in their lungs, he was off again.

Finally, whatever was driving him seemed to burn off somewhat, and Kouga came to a sudden stop. It was near nightfall, the sun having long sank behind the distant mountains. Ginta and Hakkaku fell to the ground panting.

"What...what is it?" Ginta gasped. "What's up with you?"

Kouga was not gasping for breath, but sitting on the ground with his head between his knees.

"Kagome is missing," he said.

"What?" Ginta started to his feet.

"Missing," Kouga repeated. "Shippou told me something happened, something terrible, and she's missing."

"Inuyasha doesn't know where she is?" Hakkaku asked, nervous, as they always were when mentioning Inuyasha to Kouga.

"Shippou doesn't know. He doesn't know where any of them are. He's alone."

Ginta sat back down, letting that sink in.

"Why doesn't he try to find them?"

Kouga scoffed. "Who knows? I asked him, but he just babbled some nonsense about protecting someone."

"You never can tell with fox demons," Hakkaku shrugged. "They're skittish and unpredictable."

"So then, where are we going?" Ginta asked. "Do you know where to look for her?"

"Duh!" Kouga exclaimed. "I'm going back to Edo. I know Kagome, and I know that mutt-face. When things fall apart, they go back to Kaede."

"I guess so," Ginta said dubiously.

"Hey Kouga," Hakkaku said, "do you smell that?"

Kouga and Ginta lifted their heads and sniffed.

"It's a fire," Kouga said. "A small one."

He got to his feet and swiveled his head from side to side, still sniffing.

"It's coming from that way," he said, pointing.

"We're still technically in territory controlled by wolf demons," Ginta said.

"Yeah that's right," Kouga said. "So I want to know who it is. Let's go."

"We should be careful," Ginta said, as they started running again. "I think we're close to Sesshoumaru's land."

The smell of smoke and ash was coming from less than a mile away, so it only took them about five minutes to get there. Kouga was the first to see the orange twinkle of a tiny fire in a stand of fir trees and reeds. At about the same time, he caught the unmistakable scent of humans. Before he reached the spot, he knew that there were four of them, all women.

_What the hell are they doing out here by themselves?_

Their scent was not known to him, but there was something familiar about it. He burst into the fire-lit circle without hesitation.

"Demon!" one of them screamed, but Kouga paid no attention. He was accustomed to such a greeting from humans.

He looked around. Ginta and Hakkaku had arrived, and were looking at the women in confusion. They both turned their heads and sniffed and Kouga knew they were wondering where the men were.

The women themselves had scattered when the wolf demons arrived and were now cringing in a huddle on the other side of the fire. The oldest one was in front, her arms outstretched, as if she were going to contain the girls behind her.

"What do you want?" she cried. "We're not hurting anything. Leave us alone!"

Kouga stared at for a moment than rolled his eyes.

"Leave you alone?" he repeated. "I don't think so."

The women cringed and inched backwards.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Do you know how close you are to death? Not to mention you are trespassing on the lands of the wolf demons."

"Are you of them?" she asked.

"I am their leader," Kouga answered.

"Wolf demon leader," the older woman murmured, to herself. "Come on Mikomi, you know this."

"Higurashi-san?" one of the girls looked up at her.

"Higurashi?" Kouga repeated. "Is that your name?"

The woman appeared frightened, and the girl shrank back.

"Why do I feel like I should know that name?" Ginta asked. Hakkaku nodded.

The woman was not looking at them, but her eyes were puzzled and her brow furrowed, as if lost in thought. Then her face set and she looked up.

"Are you Kouga?"

Kouga jumped. "Huh? What'd you say?"

"Kouga? Are you Kouga?"

"How do you..." his eyes finally saw the yellow bag, to the side and on the ground. It was ratty and filthy, but...

"Hey!" he pointed. "Isn't that Kagome's?"

The other two wolf demons looked at it. Hakkaku went to it and picked it up, sniffing.

"Yeah, it's Kagome alright. It's been a long time since she touched it though."

The women looked at each other, then at the wolf demons.

"Higurashi-san," the same girl who had spoken before, spoke again, tugging on the woman's coat.

"Shh!" the one called Higurashi whispered.

"You stink of Naraku," the leader said finally, his voice hard. "And you have Kagome's belongings. You had better explain yourself."

Higurashi drew herself up, her eyes flashing. "If I stink of him," she said, her voice now clear and firm, "it is because one of his servants kidnapped me. He tortured and terrorized us, and we only just escaped."

Kouga looked into her eyes. Despite her strength and determination, he could smell her desperation. Every angle of her body screamed that it was near the end of its rope. He also smelled blood, human blood, and his eyes found the wound on one of them. By the smell of it, it was not healing.

They were telling the truth.

"OK," he said. "That explains that. But how do you have that bag?"

"Now is the time for you to explain yourself," she said.

Kouga was taken aback. "Hey, you're in no position to talk to me like that, human. How do you know Kagome?"

Higurashi tore herself away from the clinging girls and walked toward him. She knelt in the dirt and bowed. He smelled stinging salt, and when she raised her face he could see that she was crying. He glanced at Ginta and Hakkaku, who shrugged and looked away, shuffling their feet.

"Please," the woman sobbed , wringing her hands. "Please. If you know where my daughter is, please, please tell me!"

Kouga's heart froze. His chest and stomach clenched. He stood dumbstruck, gaping at her.

Ginta let out an explosive breath. "Holy..."

"Shit." Hakkaku completed the thought.

The next day was better. The addition of the wolf demon tribes had turned the tide against the Tchuchigumo, and by morning a large area around the human army had been cleared. Shippou and Kagura let it be known that there would be no fighting today, and the day was spent sleeping, laughing and generally carousing. Most of the men played dice and other games and some of the wolf demons even joined in. For the most part, the humans had long become accustomed to the presence of demons.

Shippou and Kagura rested in the morning hours, sleeping in a makeshift tent with a guard posted outside who was under strict orders to not let them be disturbed.

Around midday, Shippou popped open one eye. Despite the cold weather, the air inside the tent was warm and heavy. Shippou lay on his stomach, sprawled over a pile of fur blankets. Kagura, as always, was asleep on her side, curled into the smallest amount of space possible.

He sat up and yawned, stretched, and fluffed out his tail. He glanced down at Kagura.

"Are you awake?"

She murmured, but otherwise did not even twitch. He reached out and pushed her hair away from her face. Her eyes fluttered open and he snatched his hand away.

"What is it?" she sat up like a shot. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," he assured her. "I just wanted to know if you were awake. Geez, relax, will ya?"

She gave him an odd look.

"Why is your face redder than normal?"

"What?" he laughed. "It isn't. What are you talking about? It's warm in here, that's all."

"Whatever," she shrugged, then stretched. "Isn't it nice to be able to sleep?"

"Oh yeah," he agreed. "I feel a lot better."

"Me too."

Kagura began pulling up her boots. In all the instances he had seen her when she had belonged to Naraku, her feet had been bare. She now wore leather boots lined with fur, with laces that crisscrossed up her legs all the way to the knees. Her old kimono was a distant memory. Now she wore black hakama that she tucked into the top of the boots, with layers of red kimonos topped with a quilted black haori that was belted tight. She never tied her hair up now; it fell loose to her waist. Shippou watched her and wondered if Naraku would even recognize her now. The only remainders of her past were the jade earrings that dangled from each ear.

_How has she managed to hold on to those?_

When she was done lacing up her boots, she stood up, pulled on her overcoat, and looked at him, puzzled.

"What is it?"

"Ah, nothing," he said lamely, and looked away.

_Do I have any idea what I'm doing?_

Not for the first or the last time, he wished desperately to talk to Kagome.

"So what do you want to do now?"

He sighed and scratched his head. "I don't know. I guess we should look around."

"Very well," she said. "Let's get to it then."

She strode out of the tent with Shippou trailing her.

"First," he said as they emerged into the noon sun, "I want to talk to some people about yesterday. I want to make sure I have all the names."

"Yeah, sure."

As they made their way through the crowded camp, Shippou noticed the way that some of the men, even some of Kouga's men, glanced at Kagura as she walked past. With her sharp features and straight shoulders, he had to admit that her presence was commanding. Her mannish clothing and way of walking seemed to only exaggerate her female figure.

When they at last found Norio, Shippou was relieved to be distracted from these thoughts. A group of men were busy patching armor and sharpening knives and swords, and Norio was overseeing the effort.

"Ah, Shippou-sama," he bowed and turned to Kagura. "My lady."

"How are things going?" Shippou asked.

"I cannot complain, my lord," he said. "Today has been a welcome reprieve."

"Do you have it, the list I mean?"

"Yes, my lord," Norio reached into his haori and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. "Fukushima has another."

Shippou nodded. "Thank you, Norio-san," he said. "Carry on."

They went to find Fukushima next. They found him in the center of the camp, where the women and children huddled around fires in improvised shelters. Fukushima was attempting to inventory their growing need for food, fuel, and blankets. When he saw Shippou approached, he reached into a satchel he carried on his hip and produced another, even more worn, piece of paper.

"Shippou-sama, Kagura-sama," he bowed. "I hope you are well."

"Yes of course," Shippou answered.

"And you?" Kagura smiled at him.

"I cannot complain, my lady."

"Must be something going around," Kagura muttered.

"I'm sorry?" the man turned his right ear toward her.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"I apologize, my lady, I cannot hear out of my left ear."

At Shippou's nudging, Kagura said, "Oh no, no it's nothing."

"Thank you for this, Fukushima-san," Shippou said, holding up the paper.

"I aim to serve, my lord," he bowed again.

"Now what?" Kagura asked him as they walked away.

"Well, I guess we could try to observe the enemy's movements."

"Aw come on," Kagura stretched and yawned. "We've got scouts for that. Let's go back to sleep."

"It's the middle of the day," Shippou protested.

"So?"

They made their way back to their tent, Shippou trailing Kagura and Kagura walking the way she always did, as though she had never known doubt about where her feet should be and where they should be going. Shippou was too distracted to dwell on that, however.

In the few short minutes it took to get there, he thought he had worked out how he was supposed to feel about Kagura. This had given him some difficulty at first and for a brief period he was afraid he was falling in love with her (though he would not say "in love", even to himself). He mentally ticked off days, weeks, and months, coming to the conclusion that she had been his near constant companion for roughly half a year. Why, it had taken him far less time to love Kagome. What could be more natural? Relieved, he put the problem out of his mind.

It was so comforting to have logic on one's side.

By this time, they had reached their tent, but Shippou's reverie was broken by Kagura's shouting. He jerked his head up and ran into the tent.

Kagura was standing over someone, a young man, with her staff held over his head as if to execute him as a petty criminal. The young man in question was covering the threatened body part with his hands.

"What's going on?" Shippou exclaimed.

"This man was in our tent when I came in!"

"Please, forgive me," the young man said. "I meant no offense, honest! I only wanted to talk to you."

"Wait, Kagura," Shippou said. "Let him talk."

Kagura reluctantly lowered her weapon. The young man sighed in relief and raised his head, though he remained seated on the ground. Shippou saw that he was even younger than he had supposed, though he looked travel worn and weather beaten. His cloths were threadbare and the sword at his hip lived in a shabby scabbard.

"So? Start talking," Kagura demanded impatiently.

"I'm not surprised that you don't remember me," the young man said.

"I've never seen you before in my life."

"Not you," he said. "Him. Shippou."

"Who are you?" Shippou asked him. "Are you fighting for us? Which house?"

"I don't have a house, really," he answered. "I came here when I figured out you were fighting the monsters, and now I just help out when I can."

"Well that's great," Shippou said. "But you were saying that I knew you."

"Yes. Some years ago, you and your friends came to the aid of a certain village."

Shippou scoffed. "You going to have to be more specific than that."

"There was a water god, see, a _fake_ water god."

"What?" Shippou gasped.

"That's right," the young man laughed. "My name is Taroumaru. I am, or was back then, the headman's son."

Shippou stood speechless.

"Now, I don't remember her," he said, indicating Kagura. "And it took me a while to figure out that it was you, because you've grown so much."

"So have you," Shippou murmured.

"But where's everybody else? The women who were with you? The monk with the crazy hole in his hand?"

"Ah, it's a long story."

"Well, along those lines, I didn't just come in to chat about the good ole days. I have some information that might be interesting to you."

"What is it?"

"First, I want something," Taroumaru held up one finger to his nose in a sly gesture.

"You're trying to extort something from me?"

"There's no need to use ugly words," he answered with a note of injury.

"Listen you," Kagura stood over him. "How about you just tell us what you know, and then I'll let you walk out of here on your own feet. Hell, I'm feeling generous today. Maybe you won't even have to limp."

"Kagura," Shippou chided.

"Just hear me out," the young man pleaded.

Shippou sighed and sat down on the dirt floor in front of Taroumaru.

"Speak," he said. "You're taking up nap time."

"Umm, right. Anyway, all I want is a chance to prove myself in your fighting force."

Shippou looked up at him in surprise.

"I was the son of the headman. I grew up with responsibility. I assumed I would be a leader one day."

"But then the rains came," he continued in a more morose tone, "and everything changed. My father didn't survive it, and our people were ruined and scattered."

"I'm sorry," Shippou told him, and meant it.

"I just want to be a leader again."

"I'm sorry," Shippou said again. "But I can't just give you men. These humans follow us because they want to; they don't belong to me."

"But..." Taroumaru expression was confused, even shocked. "I've seen you. You make sure they have food and water and warmth. You take care of them. You even keep track of the names of the dead."

"Yes," Shippou replied. "But I do those things because I want to. If anything, we are bound together out of friendship, and a common cause. But I repeat, they do not belong to me, and they order themselves how they will."

"I see," Taroumaru lowered his eyes and fell silent.

"However," Shippou continued. "I have some influence. If you stay close to me, I can recommend you as soon as an opportunity comes up. That's the best I can do."

Taroumaru was silent for a moment.

"If that is the best you can do, then it will have to do," he said at last. "It shall be as you say."

He bowed, his forehead almost touching the ground. When he rose again he was smiling.

"What I wanted to tell you is that I saw Inuyasha, no more than four or five weeks ago, and not all that far from here."

[End of Chapter Twenty-Four]

[Next Chapter: Join Together]


	25. Join Together

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Join Together **

Nobunaga was frantic when he woke up and discovered that Nazuna was missing.

At first he thought that she had gone off to relieve herself in the woods, but he could not find a trace of her. He began running around their campsite, shouting her name.

Inuyasha reached out and grabbed him by the collar.

"Stop yelling, you idiot," he growled.

"But, Nazuna," he stammered, trying to pull away, "I've got to find her! Someone or something must have gotten her!"

Inuyasha brought his fist down on the top of the young man's head and Nobunaga dropped like a sack of stones.

"Idiot! Snap out of it," he said. "Do you think that something could just waltz up to us while we were sleeping, take her, and get away, and I wouldn't hear or smell anything?"

Nobunaga looked up at him, rubbing his head, his face blank.

"Besides, would kidnappers wait for her to pack?"

Inuyasha pointed to where Nazuna had been sleeping. Her blankets were gone.

"There's no scent here, Nobunaga," Inuyasha said, "except mine, yours, Jinenji's, and hers."

At last, realization dawned on Nobunaga.

"She...she left?" he exclaimed. "Why? Why would she do that?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha said. Then his eyes glinted. "But you can bet I'll ask her when I get my hands on her."

"But...I thought..." Nobunaga trailed off and looked away.

"You thought what?"

_I thought she loved me._

"Nothing."

"Hey Jinenji," Inuyasha looked up at the giant. "Did you hear anything last night?"

"No," he hung his head. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Inuyasha said. "She couldn't have gotten far."

"You could be a little concerned, Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga complained.

"After everything I've been through?" Inuyasha shrugged. "This is no big deal. Her scent is still here. I'll follow it, we'll track her down, and then we can take turns whipping her with a cane."

"Absolutely not!"

"Whatever. Have it your way."

He looked around. "You guys might as well pack up. I'll look for her trail."

Nobunaga and Jinenji gathered the blankets and covered the smoking ashes of their fire with dirt. None of them even mentioned breakfast.

"Got it!" Inuyasha called to them after less than two minutes. "She went this way. Are you ready to go?"

They were about to answer when a strange and sudden noise made them turn their heads. The sound was loud and punctuated, like the cracking of a stone under a hammer. It boomed once over the quiet winter morning. It was followed by a second boom, but this one was more like the explosion of a large firecracker.

"What the hell was that?" Inuyasha turned toward the southwest.

"I have no idea," Nobunaga answered. "It wasn't a natural sound."

With one leap, Inuyasha brought himself up to a high branch of a nearby oak tree.

"Can you see anything?" Jinenji asked.

"There's some kind of ruckus off to the south," he answered. "It's got all the marks of a battle, and it's not far from here. Five miles at the most."

"We should be careful," Nobunaga said. "There's probably a good deal of fighting going on these days and we don't want to be sucked into it. And I pray that Nazuna did not go in that direction."

"Well your prayers are probably not going to be answered," Inuyasha replied, and leaped down. "Her trail does go in that general direction."

He started to swear. "At least she could not have gotten that far yet. We need to hurry."

It took them less than twenty minutes to catch up to her. When she came into view, they saw that she was kneeling behind a screen of evergreens, peering through them. When she heard their footsteps, she turned quickly and motioned to them to be careful and silent.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Shh!" she hissed at him. "Get down!"

"Why did you leave us?" Nobunaga whispered.

"What are you babbling about?" she said. "I wandered around a bit and came upon these people. I just wanted to see what was going on."

"But you packed first."

"Why put it off? I knew you guys would want to leave by the time you caught up with me."

Inuyasha gave her a hard look.

"We can talk about it later," he said at last. "What's going on here?"

Nobunaga peered through the pines trees. There was a large glen that was shaded in a deep gloom by the surrounding trees. The early morning light did not make it through. On the other side of the trees, a meadow opened and rose up to the base of a mountain slope. A crag of rock jutted out, about half way up the slope. Between the rock and Inuyasha and his companions, a large crowd was gathered.

"I don't know," Nazuna said. "I kept hidden."

"What are they doing?" Nobunaga asked. "Inuyasha-sama, can you make it out?"

"It looks like they are gathering to watch something," he said. "I can see people at the front, on that rock, and I think they have prisoners."

"Are they going to kill them?" Jinenji asked.

"Don't know yet," Inuyasha answered. "But crowds like this aren't usually interested in a puppet show."

"We have to stop them," Nobunaga said.

"I knew you were going to say that," Inuyasha muttered.

"Is this where those noises came from?" Nobunaga asked.

"No, that was further off."

A ripple ran through the crowd, a murmur and a shuffle, and their attention was drawn to the front. Silence muffled the general chatter. Now Nobunaga could see people who were standing on the platform. One had his arms upraised and appeared to be addressing the crowd. Behind him, Nobunaga could make out a line of straight and narrow poles.

"Can you hear what that man is saying?" he asked Inuyasha.

"The gods have spoken," Jinenji whispered. "Without their blessing, we cannot hope to survive. We must procure their blessing, for our and for our children's sake."

"Typical gibberish," Inuyasha shrugged.

Then he took a sharp intake of breath, and Nobunaga glanced up at him.

"What is it?"

Nobunaga looked back at the crowd and, to his terror, he saw that people were being tied to the poles.

"What's happening? Inuyasha?" Nazuna whispered, her face pale.

"Son of a bitch!" Inuyasha shouted, no longer trying to keep his voice quiet.

With that, he dashed through the trees and toward the crowd.

"Inuyasha-sama!" Nobunaga cried. "Wait!"

"We're losing daylight," Sango whispered to her husband.

They were sitting together near the overturned tree. They were both wrapped in several layers of kimonos but it was hardly enough against the bitter cold. Their companions were scattered across the clearing, each sitting alone and sullen. Momiji and Kyotou were not speaking to each other and Suzi was trying to stay close to someone while still making it clear that she was making her own decisions now. Miroku looked over his shoulder at her. She was idly trailing a finger along a tree trunk, pacing around it.

He turned back to his shivering wife, put his arms around her shoulders, and rubbed her arms and back, trying to warm her.

"I know," he said. "But I want to find out what they're going to do. We've come this far with them."

Sango sighed but said nothing.

"We can afford to wait," he told her.

"I'm going to talk to Momiji-sama," she said. "Maybe moving around would keep me warmer anyway."

"Then I guess I'll try talking to Kyotou-sama," Miroku said, getting up.

"Keep an eye on Suzi-chan," Sango said to him. "Make sure she doesn't wander off."

Kyotou was standing apart with his arms crossed, chewing on a piece of grass.

"Ah, Kyotou-sama?"

The man turned. "Hello, Miroku-san," he said. "I know, I know. We're losing daylight."

"That's OK."

They sat in uncomfortable silence for what felt to Miroku like an hour but was not even a minute.

"What are you going to do?" Miroku asked.

"That will depend on Momiji."

"So, you want to stay with her in a village or town, right? You don't want to stay with us."

"I'll be happy to stay with you," Kyotou smiled. "If that's what Momiji wants."

"Well, wait," Miroku shook his head. "If you're going to do whatever Momiji wants anyway, what's all the fuss about?"

"I want her to choose me," he answered.

Miroku stared at him. "Oh," was all he could say.

"So," he said after some silence. "Tell me about Momiji. How did you meet her? She mentioned a sister, where is she?"

Kyotou began telling the monk his history with his fiery priestess. At first, he had only asked with the hopes of distracting Kyotou from his troubles, but Miroku found that he was absorbed by the story. Filling in the gaps in their history made him feel like he was traveling with a family, rather than a mismatched band of chance companions. It was almost like the good old days.

"Miroku!" Sango's voice came from behind him, and it was terrified.

He jumped and spun around. Kyotou's hand was already on his sword.

"Sango?" he called, looking around.

She did not answer, but a moment later, he heard Momiji scream.

Miroku and Kyotou ran in that direction, dodging briers and trees. Miroku's heart was pounding as a series of potential disasters paraded through his imagination. It occurred to him that he had no weapon.

Except the wind tunnel, of course.

"Holy shit!" he heard Kyotou, somewhere near him, swear.

They burst into a terrifying scene. Miroku and Kyotou arrived just in time to see Suzi, wielding a thick tree branch like a club, attempting to bash the bRains in of some kind of creature, a dark, grasping, and clawing thing.

He heard a tearing and hacking sound, and a strange, wet gurgle. Kyotou was already there and cutting through a black, writhing mass of limbs and heads.

"Sango!" Miroku reached her and pulled her to her feet.

"Miroku!" she threw her arms around his neck. "They came out of nowhere!"

He looked around and saw that Kyotou was still fighting them off. Momiji and Suzi were stooping to the ground; they seemed to be gathering something.

"Are you alright?" Miroku said to them, but they did not seem to hear him.

"More are coming!" Sango shouted.

"Damn!" Miroku spat. "We don't have our weapons."

"Speak for yourself," Sango said, waving a small knife.

He turned and saw that these monsters were spilling out of the forest like a flood of ink. Some of them appeared to run on two legs, but most of them crawled. They had many limbs, he wasn't sure how many, and they were covered by a coarse, black hair.

_They don't feel like anything_, he thought, _I can't sense anything._

He cringed when one overtook him, grasping at him with black, skeletal hands. He swung at its face, but the blow had no impact. He was reaching for something, anything, with which to clobber it, but suddenly the creature crumpled to the ground. Sango stood over them, holding the knife that dripped with the creature's green-black blood.

"More are coming," she panted. "What do we do?"

They were joined by Momiji, Suzi, and Kyotou, who were breathless and disheveled, but with no obvious injuries.

"What do we do?" Suzi echoed Sango.

"They're all around us now," Kyotou said.

The five of them drew closer together. Kyotou brought himself to the front, his face set grim, holding out his sword.

"I think this is it, my friends," he said.

"Where are they coming from?" Suzi cried. "Are they demons?"

"They sure look like demons to me," Sango said.

Momiji threw something and it sailed through a monster's head like a bullet. The creature collapsed into a black heap. With a start, Miroku realized that she and Suzi had gathered rocks, purified them, and were shooting them at the demons with deadly accuracy.

"They die like demons, but they don't feel like demons," Momiji said, even as she continued pelting them. "They don't feel like anything."

"Oh, thank goodness," Miroku murmured.

Sango gave him a questioning glance, but he did not have time to explain.

"There!" he pointed toward the opposite side of the clearing. "There's a weak spot. I'll make a hole in their ranks, then we'll run through."

"How are you going to do that?" Kyotou asked.

"Don't have time for questions, just run as fast as you can as soon as I say to. Everybody ready?"

They nodded, though doubtfully.

Miroku's left hand grabbed the beads that encircled his right wrist and palm.

_It's been a long time, hasn't it?_

The beads were pulled away. The black cloth flew aside, flapping like a flag in the breeze.

"Everyone, stay behind me!" he shouted.

He turned out his right hand, as if to command the demons to stop. There was an incredible commotion of wind, of screaming monsters, tearing trees and sliding earth. It seemed to go on forever, but it was over in minutes. The monk returned the beads to his hand, and the silence that followed was deafening.

"NOW!" he shouted.

Confused and terrified, the others bolted in the direction they were pointed. There was an even greater opening there now, not only in the swarm of monsters, but in the trees as well.

"What...what was that?" Momiji cried.

"No time," Miroku shouted to her. "Keep running. As fast as you can!"

They ran into the forest, blind and panicked. Miroku was desperate to turn and see how close the monsters were, for he was sure they would be almost on top of him, but he did not dare. Every second counted if they were going to escape.

What he did not know then, what none of them knew, was that they had encountered a mere, tiny offshoot of Tsuchigumo, and almost all of them had been sucked into the Wind Tunnel. What few remained were dazed and witless.

At last, Suzi stumbled, and fell to the ground with a cry. Miroku immediately turned to pick her up and, looking behind them, saw that nothing was following. He reached for Suzi, who was sobbing in terror.

"It's OK," he said, breathless. "I think we're safe. They're gone."

The five of them sank to the earth, panting and shaking. At first, they could hear nothing but their own heavy breathing and pounding hearts.

"Shh!" Sango said. "Do you hear that?"

They held their breath. Finally, Kyotou let his out explosively.

"It's just people, I think."

"That's better than those monsters," Sango said. "But don't forget that Miroku and I are wanted. We have to be careful."

"It sounds like a huge crowd," Kyotou observed. "Let's just get a little closer and see what's going on."

Sango hesitated. "Very well, but again, be careful."

They crept through the trees. Miroku continuously cast glances over his shoulders, fearful that the monsters would return. Ahead of him, he soon saw that the crowd had collected its attention to a person or group of persons who were standing above them on a rocky ledge that emerged from the hillside. Miroku and his companions were standing behind and above this ledge. Someone was addressing the crowd, but Miroku could not make out what he was saying and, as they had reached the end of the forest and there was nothing between them and the crowd but grass, he did not dare creep any closer.

Almost as soon as he had come to a stop, a strange sensation began to take shape in the tips of his fingers, traveling slowly through his body until it seeped into his chest. Sango must have noticed his expression, because her own became concerned.

"Miroku? What is it?"

"I...I don't know," he whispered. "I feel...strange. There's–"

"There's a demon present," Momiji declared. "Or something demonic."

Sango tensed. "Is it dangerous?"

"Aren't all demons dangerous?" Kyotou asked.

"Well..." Sango left it hanging.

Miroku did not see the point in debating the issue at this particular time. He closed his eyes to concentrate.

"It is demonic," he said, "but it's familiar. I've felt it before, it's almost like..."

He gasped. All at once, it was as if his mind was taken from his body, from this dark and cold hillside, to summers long ago. He was swept into sunlight, into warm nights under the stars, into fish and pot-sticker suppers and songs and stories and bloodshed and tears and red red red red...

He shuddered and hit his knees.

"Miroku!" Sango knelt beside him.

"Oh, Sango," he cried.

The others were amazed to see that he was weeping.

"Miroku, what—

"It's Inuyasha!"

"What?" Sango exclaimed.

"There!" still gasping, he pointed toward the crowd. "He is there!"

Inuyasha cleared the space between him and the crowd in about two seconds. He was over their heads before any of them knew of his presence. He had seen the people being tied to stakes and he had seen the kindling being piled around their feet. That was bad enough, but from where he had been hiding beside Nobunaga, Nazuna, and Jinenji, he had seen one of their faces, and this made him forget everything else. He forgot about the three companions. He forgot the crowd. He was too distracted by his outrage and urgent fear to even detect the scent of his long lost and dear friends, Miroku and Sango, who were hiding nearby. He had seen her face.

It was Botan.

He had not seen her, had hardly thought of her, since the day he left her standing in front of that cave, the cave where he had spent the interminable months of the Rains. She had found him, wounded and senseless in the wilderness. She had forced him to move when he had wanted to become stone. She had fed him. She had protected him. Now she was being jostled and fondled by goons, while they tied her to a stake and piled bundles of sticks and of straw at her feet. Inuyasha heard people shout: "Burn the sorceress!", "Burn the false!", and "Burn the Dissident!".

This last one was a technical inaccuracy, as Botan of course had never been mentioned in the original Warrant. But that word had come to signify anyone that people wanted to get rid of, and anyway it did not matter because Inuyasha was not listening. He looked across the crowd and saw her face.

It was not full of fear. She was not crying or pleading for her life. Neither was her expression one of the stoic blankness seen on the impossibly noble. Her eyes were baleful and they glared out from behind her black hair like molten onyx. Someone near her said something to her, addressed her with a question, and without hesitation she drew herself back and spat in his face. The man lift his hand to strike her.

"You do and you'll eat that arm!"

The men on the platform turned in confusion, then cried out in amazement. Inuyasha was flying over the heads of the crowd and bearing down on them with his sword drawn. It was a sword that no mortal hand could wield; as if the hair, eyes, and ears weren't enough to convince them that a demon was come among them.

Botan's eyes widened.

"Inuyasha!" she cried.

Her guards were too stupefied to react, so Inuyasha's fists came down on the crown of their heads, one by one. Their eyes rolled back into their heads and they crumpled to the ground like paper dolls.

"Get him! Don't just stand there! There's only one of him!"

Inuyasha groaned. Why did they always have to make things hard? He looked around, decided on a suitable spot, and sent the electrifying power of Tessaiga ripping up the hill. Chunks of earth shot into the air and rained down on the crowd. The clearing fell deathly silent for a moment, then the people scattered into an orderless, screaming mob.

"Are you alright?" he began untying Botan's bonds.

"I am now," she said. "I prayed someone would save me. To think that you would appear!"

"You didn't look like you were praying," he said. "You looked like you could bite their hands off."

"Yes, well, it's hard to give a tear to dogs," she rubbed her wrists and looked around.

The area had been effectively vacated.

"How is it that you happened to be here?" she asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," he said. "I'm looking for my friends."

"Have you found any of them?"

"No, not yet."

"I see. I'm sorry, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha was about to ask her how she had come to be in this predicament, when another voice interrupted him. It came from the north slope, where he had unleashed his sword minutes before.

"Inuyasha!" it was a woman's voice. "We haven't seen you for half a year, and you try to kill us!"

Inuyasha whirled around, his eyes wide and his ears tipped forward.

They were running toward him, panting, red-faced, and with eyes as wide and as stunned as his own. They were dressed strangely, but he didn't even notice. All he saw was their faces.

"It...it can't be," he whispered, shivering.

"What?" Botan said to him. "Do you know them?"

She shielded her eyes from the morning sun and tried to peer closer at them.

"Isn't that the monk who was with you—

Inuyasha did not hear the rest. He closed the distance between them in a heartbeat.

And then he was there, and they were there, staring at him. They were breathing. His nostrils filled with the smell of them and, in spite of everything, it had not changed. They were breathing. They were alive.

"Inuyasha!" Sango cried.

She flew into him, collapsing in his arms in a storm of weeping and laughing. Inuyasha clenched his jaw.

"This is a dream."

He realized he was saying it out loud.

"No, not this time," she raised her face to look at him. "It's not a dream. No more dreaming."

"No more dreaming," he echoed her like a prayer.

She reached up and lightly stroked his cheek and he saw that she was brushing aside tears.

Miroku stood there, still and silent, though Inuyasha thought that his eyes were swollen and red.

"So, you old pervert monk," he jeered at him. "It's been a while."

"Yes," Miroku answered, his face a mystery. "It has been a long time."

"What kept you?"

"Oh, you know, this and that."

"Humph," Inuyasha snorted. "Itinerant. There's no knowing where you've been lazing about while I've been tearing the countryside apart looking for you."

Miroku took in a breath to retort, then laughed. Inuyasha looked at him in surprise, but the monk just kept laughing. Then, without warning, he launched himself at his old friend and lifted the hanyou clear off the ground in a tight, suffocating squeeze.

"Half-demon," he said still laughing. "More like half-wit."

Sango laughed harder, and threw herself back into the embrace.

"OK, guys," Inuyasha managed to wheeze through four fierce arms, "now I really can't breathe."

"Everyone just settle down," Kouga said. "I need to think."

Clearly, an assessment of the situation was in order.

Kagome's whereabouts and condition were unknown.

Naraku's whereabouts were also unknown, though it could be assumed that he was alive and well.

There's was no knowing where Inuyasha was, but Kouga did not really care so he brushed that aside.

Ayame was dead.

Kouga shuddered even now. The memory of his vision of her seemed as close and real as if it were still right in front of him.

Naraku had attempted to kidnap Kagome's mother, but had failed in the end, and now...

He felt a bright, expansive glow of triumph. For the first time in months, something had gone his way. Not only would he be able to throw it in Naraku's face, that he had so utterly failed at something he obviously wanted quite badly, but he would also be able to throw it in Inuyasha's face, that he, Kouga, had rescued Kagome's dear mother.

Which brought him back to the situation at hand. The most important thing, he concluded, was to see to the well-being of these women. They were cold, hungry, and wounded. The mother was strong, and determined to keep herself and the others alive. Her temerity did not surprise him, knowing Kagome as well as he did, but her stout heart would not have saved them.

"I can carry two," he announced suddenly.

Ginta and Hakkaku turned to him with a questioning look.

"You two can get the others."

"Wait," the mother said. "Where are you taking us?"

"We'll get you back to our own dens. They are the closest safe place. You need warmth, clothes, food, and water."

He indicated Ayumi with a glance.

"That one there needs help, and rest," he said. "It's too dangerous to walk through this countryside right now, and it will only take a couple of hours if we carry you."

The woman's eyes were full of doubt. One of the other girls drew the mother aside, and leaned in to her ear.

"Before you start whispering to each other," Kouga said in a loud voice, "I guess I should tell you that, as a wolf demon, I can hear your hearts beating from over here."

The women stared at him, dumbfounded. He sighed.

"Please, trust me. I promise, no member of the wolf demon tribe will ever harm you."

"How can we be sure?" one of the girls asked.

It was the same girl who had pulled Kagome's mother aside. She was the only one, other than the mother, who had spoken in his presence.

"What is your name?" he asked her.

She glanced at her companions, and swallowed hard. Then she drew herself up, and he could sense her daring herself to look him in the eye, which she did.

"Yuka," she answered.

Looking her full in the face for the first time, Kouga felt a faint shock of recognition, though he was certain he had never seen her before. Still, something about her was compelling and familiar to him. His ice-blue eyes stared at her, trying to puzzle it out. She held his gaze until Ginta spoke up.

"Kagome-san is an honorary member of our tribe," he announced. "She is a sister."

"Yeah," Hakkaku agreed. "We would never, could never, harm her allies or kin."

This declaration made quite an impression on the women. The mother seemed satisfied, and Kouga knew that was enough. The others, though frightened and hesitant, would follow her lead.

"So I will carry the wounded one," he said.

He looked the women over. The oldest, Kagome's mother, was strong, but the strongest was the one who had named herself.

"You," he beckoned to her. "You I will carry as well, but you'll have to hold on, alright?"

"What?" she stammered.

He did not answer, but went to the wounded one. She appeared about the same age as the other two. Her skin was paler, however, and her hair, full and black, was matted to her face and neck. Her brown eyes were shining and unfocused. He took the injured hand to examine it.

"It's not too far gone," he said, "but we have to hurry. I will carry you, understand?"

She nodded.

"What is your name?"

She licked her lips, but did not answer, and he began to think she did not understand after all.

"She's Ayumi," the girl who was holding her up answered him. "I am Eri."

"Thanks."

Kouga bent and lifted Ayumi, cradling her in his arms. He walked back to Yuka and knelt in front of her, being careful to not jostle his cargo more than necessary.

"Climb on."

"Are...are you sure?" she asked.

"I get the feeling you don't know much about demons," he said. "I'm stronger than you think. Climb on. We're wasting time."

"Go ahead, Yuka-chan," Higurashi urged her.

Kouga could sense her body tensing, as if preparing for a strike. Slowly, like she was putting her hands into a fire, she reached for his neck. She closed her arms around him, and hooked her knees as best she could to his hips. He stood up again. Ginta and Hakkaku had picked up Higurashi and Eri.

"Let's go," he barked at them. "As fast as we can. We don't stop until we get to the dens."

He meant what he said. He felt both girls flinch when he started to run. Yuka screamed once when, having reached peak speed, he let the air of his own momentum take him over hills, fields, and tree tops. Her grip tightened.

"It's OK," he said to them as they flew through the air. "Kagome screamed too, the first time we did this."

"Son of a bitch," Yuka swore, her voice shrill in the wind. "This is crazy!"

"Well," Kouga smiled, "I guess she didn't say exactly that."

They ran on, Ginta and Hakkaku not far behind their leader. Kouga caught the scent of not a few demons along the way, but they were moving too fast to be at risk. The trees, the horizon of hills, sped by in an orange blur.

Everything _was_ crazy. Kagome and her friends were lost and scattered. Shippou, the little fox runt, was almost as tall as Kouga himself, and was the captain of an army. He had found Kagome's mother, wandering in the wilderness. Then there was Ayame.

What was happening?

_OK,_ he thought, _I'm not as stupid as all that. I can take the hint. Something is happening._

Something big.

They arrived at their destination in less than three hours. The members of his tribe who had stayed behind in the dens, mostly elders and children, were surprised to see him. He nodded at them at the cave mouth and went straight in, carrying the wounded girl (Ayumi, he reminded himself) to the back. He put her down gently on a bed of furs near a fire. He had to shake his shoulders hard to get Yuka loose of him. She slid off his back, one mass of tense muscle, her eyes wide and her hair standing out in all directions. Higurashi and Eri were in a similar state.

"Yo, Kouga-sama," a young, female wolf demon with laughing eyes said to him. "Did you bring these as snacks? I thought you didn't go for that sort of thing."

"Harm an inch of them and I'll break your legs," he responded.

"My, my," she smiled. "Touchy."

"These women are kin of Kagome's," he announced. "Make sure they are treated as such."

Her eyes widened and she stared at the humans. Many others had collected around and were murmuring and gesturing to each other, their faces full of wonder. Higurashi and the girls had gathered together around Ayumi and were watching the wolf demons warily. The young wolf demoness went to them, kneeling on the ground beside them.

"My name is Fuu," she said. "It will be an honor to care for you. I can tell you are not well. What may be done?"

"Please," Yuka did not hesitate. "Our friend is hurt. A demon bit off her finger. We couldn't treat it well."

"We have medicine that should help," Fuu said. "But I admit I don't know much about treating humans."

"I do," Eri spoke up. "It was...is...my profession, in my own...land."

"That's fortunate," Fuu smiled. "Come with me. With our heads together we'll see what we can come up with."

Eri rose to follow her.

Higurashi and Yuka returned to Ayumi. She was paler than ever, and her forehead was burning hot to the touch.

"Kagome," she whispered. "Where is Kagome?"

They did not answer, but Higurashi bent and kissed her forehead.

"It's alright, Ayumi-chan," she said. "Everything's gonna be alright now."

"You, there," another wolf demon spoke to them.

Yuka looked up and saw another woman looking at her.

"Yes?"

"Come with me."

Yuka looked at Higurashi, who nodded. Hesitating, Yuka followed the woman away.

Kouga watched on and, satisfied that the women were being cared for, he went to the mouth of the cave to let the cold air clear his head. He sat down, cross-legged, on the bare rock and gazed out onto the dead and frozen valley.

He had forgotten to list the weather among the unusual circumstances that were so abundant as of late. First, the summer had been brutal, the kind where birds dropped from the sky, or drowned themselves in the river to escape the heat. Then the Rains came, and wiped the summer away irrevocably. Based on what Shippou had told him, it was clear to him now that they had begun precisely when Kagome and Inuyasha had encountered Naraku on the plateau.

Was that a coincidence? All things considered, he doubted it.

And now there was the winter, a drier and colder one he had never known.

There could be no doubt. Someone was trying to tell him, or them, something, and they weren't even trying to be subtle about it.

But what? What was he supposed to do?

He heard footsteps and turned. Higurashi was standing beside him.

"I wanted to thank you, Kouga-sama, for—

"Don't mention it," he waved it aside. "And don't call me that."

"Oh," she appeared startled. "I'm sorry."

"Kagome calls me Kouga-kun," he said.

"I see."

She sat down beside him.

"You should go back inside where it's warm," he told her.

"I'm fine."

He sighed. "You're just as stubborn as she is, I see."

She smiled. He thought the expression sad and wistful.

"Yes," she said. "I suppose that's only natural."

They sat silent for some time. He knew what she would say next. He had been waiting for it.

"Where...when did you see her last?" she asked.

"I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "It's been a long time. Over half a year."

She turned her face away from him, and he could see her jaw tighten. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

"Do you think she's dead?"

"Absolutely not," he said, squeezing her shoulder tighter.

She turned back to him in surprise.

"Why are you so sure?"

"Aren't you?"

She didn't answer at first. Then she let out a long, shuddering breath.

"Yes," she said. "I'm sure. She's alive out there somewhere. But..."

She clasped her hands on front of her heart.

"But that doesn't mean," she went on, her eyes filling with tears again, "that she's OK. That doesn't mean she isn't hurt, or in trouble, or lost, or lonely."

Kouga was silent. He did not know what to say to her. Comforting Kagome's mother was something he had never prepared himself for.

"Won't you tell me what you do know?" her eyes were pleading.

That was the one thing Kouga did not want to do. What he knew was what Shippou had told him, and that would not comfort this poor woman.

_Hey Kouga-kun,_ he heard the voice of Kagome reach for him out of the past, _don't be so thoughtless! Would you want something like that to happen to you?_

No. He would not want to be set adrift in a foreign land, with children of his own blood unaccounted for, lost in the wild. And he definitely would not want someone to lie to him about it, as if he were a child. This woman was no child.

So he told her everything he knew, and held her, patting her on the head and back awkwardly, while she wept.

"She lives," she managed to say at last. "But where? And in what state? I'll be tortured until I can find her."

"I'll take you back to Kaede's village tomorrow," he said. "I'm certain we'll find something there. She may already be there."

The woman's expression darkened into deeper doubt.

"What is it?"

"Do you know where Kagome comes from?" she asked him. "Do you know about the well?"

"Ah, let's see, I think I recall something about...uh...no, not really."

She took a deep breath, then poured forth all at once everything she could tell him about Kagome. Not just the well, but about the family shrine, the tree of ages, Kagome's connection to the Shikon Jewel, about her school, her friends, her bedroom, her favorite foods, her childhood illnesses, her father and grandfather, both deceased, her younger brother, hopefully not deceased.

"I'm so worried about him," she whispered fearfully. "I don't know what to do. My poor children."

But Kouga was not listening to this. His head was swimming with the abundance of information. In all the things Higurashi had said, he had pictured Kagome, a child, a young woman. He had absorbed all the things he hadn't known, realizing how much he had never known.

And never asked.

"Anyway," she went on, "the well was how we came here. It's in that same village."

"That's why Kagome is always going back there," he murmured.

"That's right. But when the demon brought us through...I couldn't tell, but there was a lot of destruction."

"Dammit," Kouga swore. "I might've known. If Naraku sent a demon there, it would probably kill everyone in the way."

She began crying again, and to distract her, he asked her to describe the demon to him.

"Bah," he snorted. "Even that mutt-face Inuyasha wouldn't be taken by a demon like that. Kaede's village may have been destroyed, but I think we can be sure that our friends weren't there when it happened."

"Then what do we do?"

"We still go back there," he said. "We may still find clues, and it's the only lead I can think of. Besides, don't you want to go back through?"

She looked up at him, her face stricken.

"I don't know!" she cried. "I need to find Kagome. I'm afraid if I go back through the well, it won't let me come back here again. But I'm also worried about Souta. I don't know what to do."

"If you want my opinion," he said. "I think you should go back."

Higurashi looked at him in surprise.

"You and these girls are not prepared for a world like mine," his voice was gruff, and his sharp blue eyes were direct. "You are weak. Kagome is accustomed to this. Your son needs you more."

Higurashi lowered her head and was silent for a long time. She stared down at her fidgeting hands.

"You are right," her voice startled him. "But...I have other reasons to doubt. Wait here, please."

She rose and returned to the caves. He stared after her, then shrugged and returned to his own gloomy thoughts. After a few minutes, she was sitting beside him again. She had brought Kagome's old bag. She opened it and retrieved strange objects that he could tell by the smell were made of wood and ink.

"These are books," she told him. "Writing, from my time."

Kouga could not even pretend to care about such things.

"Writing?" he shrugged. "What good is that?"

"These aren't just any writings," she said. "They're prophecies."

"Say what now?"

"They tell the future."

Then her brows knitted.

"Well, _your_ future, my past I guess, or, well, now it's my future, I think..." she trailed off. "Oh boy, I really hate thinking about that stuff."

"Uh-huh," Kouga said slowly, staring at her.

"Here, let me show you."

She turned through the pages, scanning them with her brown eyes, that looked so much like Kagome's that they cut large holes in his soul.

"Know that the Beloved is only a visitor," she read.

"What does that mean?"

"'Beloved' is what the prophecies call Kagome," she explained.

Kouga did not trust himself to say anything to that.

"When the Mother of the Beloved reads these words," she continued, "it will be a sign unto you. Beware! The Enemy hunts you!"

She sighed, placing a hand down on the paper.

"Souta tried to warn me about that one. He thought it meant that I was in danger from Naraku, but I didn't pay attention."

Kouga shook his head.

"I don't know," he said. "It sounds pretty vague to me. What's the point of a prophecy that doesn't prepare you for what happens?"

"I really don't know," she admitted.

Her eyes returned to the page, and she gasped.

"What is it?" he turned to her in alarm, and looked at the paper as if he would see the problem.

"Oh my god," she cried, her voice throbbing.

"What is it?" he repeated, agitated.

"Time will become undone for the Mother, and she will be taken in darkness. The Seeress will be saved by the General, but it will be the Cyclone who will keep her."

"You see?" he scoffed. "That was perfect gibberish."

"Look here," she pointed. "I am the 'Mother', and also the 'Seeress'. I've learned that the names are cross-referenced this way so that I can find all passages related to a certain person. I don't know who the 'General' is, but _you_ are the 'Cyclone'."

Kouga stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"The forces of the Cyclone shall be given over to the Shape Shifter and the Motherless in the northwest," she read. "Does that mean anything to you?"

Kouga felt the blood drain from his face.

"Shape shifter?" he repeated, and in his mind's eye he saw the form of the enormous hawk, shading out the sun.

"Yes," Higurashi went on. "I've come upon that name before, cross-referenced with 'Trickster'."

Kouga laughed out loud, then put his head in his shaking hands.

"Yeah, that's Shippou alright."

"Shippou?" she exclaimed. "Are you sure? Kagome told me he was just a child. This describes him as a captain of an army."

Kouga surrendered to the evidence. There was no way she could have known that.

"It's a long story," he said. "Who is 'Motherless'?"

"I have no idea."

"There are no other hints about them?"

"Not that I've found so far."

"Motherless," he repeated. "That could mean anything, or anyone. I'm pretty sure Inuyasha's mother is dead, probably that monk and demon slayer too. Come to think of it, I don't think Shippou has a mother."

"Then it probably doesn't mean that," she said. "It couldn't be that vague."

"What else could it mean?"

"I don't know. But I will know them when I meet them."

"What do you mean?"

"I can see…signs. I noticed it when we met, but I wasn't sure what it meant. Now I think it's something I can see so I know who people are."

He sighed. "So, what I'm hearing is, you're not sure if you should go through the well, because you think you have a purpose here, that you're meant to be here."

"That's about right."

"Ah-ha," he said, holding up his index finger. "But if you_ are_ meant to be here, the well won't keep you from coming back."

"I...I guess I hadn't thought of it."

Kouga felt a surge of satisfaction in his own cleverness. However, they both followed this to the next, inevitable thought. Higurashi said it out loud.

"Or, we will go back and I will be unable to pass through at all. I won't be able to get to Souta anyway."

"Yeah. There's that."

They were quiet. Kouga felt a killer headache coming on.

"So, what do we do?" she asked.

"Why not go on to Edo?" he suggested. "We can see if the well will let you through, and we can check for a trail to finding Kagome. We might as well."

"Except I don't know if we have the time," Higurashi argued. "We have somewhere to be."

"What?" he exclaimed. "You mean there's a calendar for this shit? Why didn't you say so? What does it say?"

Higurashi found a particular page, and read aloud.

"Whosoever stands in my presence on the Day of Heavy Snow in the Month of the Priest, their names are written in the heavens. And they shall be: the Beloved, the Guardian, the Lord of the West, and the Wanderer. There shall be the Slayer and the Holy Man also, and the Motherless, the Seeress, the Bearer, the Golden-Hearted, and the Cyclone."

Kouga stared at her. He then got to his feet and proceeded to pace back and forth, swearing and waving his arms in the air.

"What's the matter?" Higurashi asked in alarm.

"You realize that is less than..." he counted on his fingers. "A month away?"

"It is?"

"Yeah, and just who the hell are these people anyway? Though I can tell you I have a _bad_ feeling about that 'Lord of the West' business. And by the way, whose _presence_ are we talking about?"

"Oh, that one I know, no problem. It's someone named Midoriko."

He gaped at her again, then continued his pacing.

"'Someone named Midoriko', she says. 'No problem', she says."

"Is that bad?"

"Lady, Midoriko has been dead for about four hundred years."

"Really?"

"Yeah, didn't you know?" his tone was sarcastic. "You're the _seeress_ aren't you?"

"Well, I knew she was dead by my time, but I thought here—

"Nope. Dead. Most sincerely dead."

"It says here: Know Seeress that I am always with you. I am Midoriko, and you can die but you're never dead."

"Oh, that's great. That's just great."

While Kouga continued his pacing and ranting, Higurashi's eyes wandered back to the pages.

"Ah, Kouga-sama?"

"I asked you not to call me that."

"Right, sorry."

"What is it?"

"Midoriko may be dead, but she is obviously active and aware of what's going on."

Something in her tone made him stop.

"What is it now?" he braced himself.

"Ah, well, never mind," she closed the book in a snap. "That's enough of that for one day, I think."

"Higurashi-san," he said. "What did it say?"

"You really don't care to know, I promise," she laughed nervously.

"I assure you I do."

She sighed, and opened the book.

"Worry not, my young wolf pup," she read in a faltering voice. "All will be revealed to you in good time, and not a moment before!"

"Now I _know_ you're just fucking with me!"

"Don't speak to Higurashi-san that way!"

They both turned and saw that Yuka was watching them. Higurashi started visibly when she saw her. She was now dressed in gray fur pelts from head to toe, leather twine wrapping them around her arms and legs. The ensemble provided a startling and comical contrast to her foot gear—the heavy, black boots she had been wearing when she was taken from the shrine. Her long, straight hair was damp and pushed back behind her ears.

"Where'd you come from?" Kouga demanded. "How long have you been listening?"

"Long enough to know what insanity I've involved myself in," she answered. "And as mind-boggling as this conversation is, it is too cold out here. Higurashi-san should come in where it's warm and get some rest."

"Yuka," Higurashi said, "if you're going to order me around, why don't you just call me by my first name?"

Yuka blinked at her. "That would not be proper. Please, come inside."

Higurashi sighed in defeat.

"As you wish."

She turned back to Kouga and inclined her head.

"Goodnight," she said simply, and walked back into the fire-lit cavern with Yuka.

Kouga watched them go. He returned to where he had been sitting when Higurashi had interrupted him. He heard the two women whispering to each other.

"What on earth are you wearing?"

"Don't make fun," Yuka said. "The same getup is waiting for you."

Their voices faded and Kouga returned to his solitary thoughts. Did that conversation just happen? Was any of this real? He knew it was, because of how much he wished it wasn't. There was no naming what he would have traded to go back to a bright warm summer, to a time when he felt in control of his destiny.

He looked up at the uncaring stars.

"The next time I see Inuyasha," he muttered, "I'm gonna punch him square in the mouth."

From their hiding place at the bottom of the hill, Nobunaga, Nazuna, and Jinenji, had seen Inuyasha scatter the humans like startled doves. They watched as he released the woman from her bonds. A few minutes later, two other people joined him, and they embraced.

"What's going on?" Nazuna asked.

"I can't be sure," Nobunaga's voice was full of wonder. "But I think that's Miroku and Sango."

"Inuyasha's friends?"

"It's safe," Jinenji told them. "Let's go see for ourselves."

They hurried up the slope, almost running, and Inuyasha waved at them. When they had caught up to him, he was standing on the platform of rock with the woman he had rescued, and two others, who indeed introduced themselves as Sango and Miroku.

"This is Jinenji," Inuyasha said to them, indicating the giant. "You've heard of him before, of course, but you never got the chance to meet him."

Miroku and Sango bowed low to the half-demon, and greeted him with deep respect. Jinenji reached over his head and brought forth something that he handed to the monk. Miroku's eyes widened. His outstretched hand closed around his staff. It had lost its gleam, but was otherwise intact. He put both hands around it and gazed up at it in disbelief.

"I thought this was gone for good," he murmured, shaking the rings, which tinkled like golden bells.

"I found it a while back," Inuyasha told him. "Our traveling took us back to the site."

The eyes of his two old friends were distant and melancholy.

"What's it like there?" Sango asked quietly.

"Like a giant foot splatted a bug," he answered. "I looked for Hiraikotsu, Sango, but I couldn't find it."

"It's alright," she whispered.

"This is Nazuna," Inuyasha introduced the young woman who was with Nobunaga and Jinenji. "You guys don't know her, because Kagome, Shippou, and I helped her before we met you two. It was a long time ago."

The woman bowed to them.

"This is Nobunaga. Kagome and I helped him out a while back, before we even met Shippou."

"And everyone, this is Botan," with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder he indicated the woman he had saved minutes before. "She's a priestess. She found me after...that day...and took care of me, though I haven't seen her until now since the Rains. Of course, Miroku and Sango may remember her."

"Inuyasha," Sango said. "Don't you think...I mean, have you been trying to collect everyone you've aided over the years?"

"Pfft, as if." Inuyasha scoffed. "I just happen to run across them."

"I doubt it was a coincidence," Miroku said. "Speaking of which...there's someone up there that Botan-sama may be interested in seeing."

He pointed up the slope toward the forest that climbed into the mountain range. They all looked up and saw more people approaching them, a man and two women.

Botan gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth.

"What is it?" Inuyasha asked Miroku.

"You'll see," the monk grinned.

Botan took off running towards the people, her arms outstretched, and almost tackled one of the women.

"Oh, I can't believe I forgot," Sango exclaimed, her eyes shining. "Momiji's sister."

"Just as Botan found you, Inuyasha," Miroku explained, "Momiji found us. Somehow, she kept us alive through the Rains."

Inuyasha watched on as the two women continued their tearful greeting. The one called Momiji was introducing her sister to the man and another woman, or young girl as Inuyasha now saw, who were with her. Sango dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief and he shook his head, rolling his eyes skyward.

"This is crazy," he said, unknowingly echoing Yuka's sentiment at that very moment, many miles away. "I hope I get to meet whoever is doing all this."

"That would be interesting," Miroku agreed. "But I wouldn't hold my breath."

"Well, whatever, it's almost dark," he said, looking around. "I guess we can camp here."

"Aren't you afraid those people will come back?" Sango asked him.

Inuyasha snickered.

"Let them," he said. "If they're spoiling for a fight, I'll be glad to give 'em one."

"Huh? What is it?" he asked, when he saw Sango's expression.

"It's nothing," she smiled. "I just missed you, that's all."

Two half-demons, five human women, and three human men, made camp under the protection of the rocky hillside. They grouped themselves more or less as was their custom. Jinenji, Nobunaga, and Nazuna settled down together. Nearby, Momiji slept between Botan and Suzi, Kyotou laying within arm's reach. On the other side of the fire, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku sat up talking into half the night. There was much to say. They wanted to know everything that had happened to them since their separation, but they covered it in mismatched, out of sequence chunks, because they skipped around in the storyline and interrupted each other often. Inuyasha told them how he had rescued Nazuna from a strange, black, spider-like demon, and this prompted Sango to relate what had chased them into his path.

"Wait, wait," he cut her off. "You're getting ahead of the story. What happened before that?"

"Well," Sango struggled to remember the correct order of events.

Miroku yawned.

"It's late," he said. "We're not going to get through everything tonight. We should try to sleep."

"If those monsters are as close as you say, I'm not sleeping," Inuyasha said. "But you two go ahead."

They nodded and went to their own sleeping place, and Inuyasha was so overcome with the day's events that he almost missed it.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What the hell is this?"

Miroku and Sango had both retired to the same spot, lying down under one large blanket. Now they rose up on their elbows to look at him.

"Inuyasha," Sango said. "What's wrong? You'll wake everyone up."

He jumped to a spot on the ground next to them, and started down at the couple, scrutinizing them.

"What's the matter with you?" Sango asked him.

"What's all this?" he asked again, waving his hand over the two of them. "When did you get so chummy?"

"Huh?" Sango started.

A suppressed chuckle escaped Miroku.

"Oh my," he said, still laughing. "We've already begun to take it for granted, Sango, and we forgot to tell Inuyasha."

"What?" Sango craned her neck to look at him. Then she laughed as well.

"Oh my goodness. You're right. How silly!"

"Inuyasha," she said, turning back to the half-demon, "Miroku and I are married now."

"WHAT?" Inuyasha shouted.

"Shh! You'll wake everyone up!"

"When the hell did this happen?" he demanded, in a lowered voice.

Sango shrugged.

"A while ago. Are you really so surprised?"

"Well, yeah," Inuyasha stammered, still stunned. "I thought...I mean, I knew, I mean Kagome said you were...but...I guess I thought you wouldn't...not until Naraku was dealt with."

Sango's expression darkened.

"Yes, well, we're not waiting to live, not on account of _that one_. Not anymore."

"Clearly," he murmured.

They said goodnight again and settled down to sleep, and Inuyasha moved away. He felt blindsided. It had never occurred to him that such a simple yet fundamental thing could change. He recognized his customary resistance to change, and understood that he would have to be stronger than he had foreseen, because more change was without a doubt on the horizon. He looked at the couple, sleeping with all peace and contentment, and at the crowd of humans he had suddenly collected, and he realized that there would be no going back to the "old days."

It had been difficult for him to allow Miroku and Sango to go to sleep, because he still had many questions that were unanswered, but he knew they needed rest.

_They're only human_, he reminded himself.

And besides, he had not forgotten other business that he wanted to take care of before sunrise.

He waited until he knew everyone was asleep, then he went to the sleeping place of Nazuna. Without warning, he took her by the arms and pulled her to her feet. She mumbled drowsily and blinked at him.

"Inuyasha...what's the matter."

He ignored her and threw her over his shoulder, her stomach coming down on bone.

"Oomph!" she exhaled.

With one leap, he took her well out of earshot, then let her fall back on the ground. She landed on her backside.

"Ow!" she cried, now fully awake. "What the hell?"

"Why did you leave this morning?"

She looked up at him, her eyes wide.

"I already told you—"

"You don't think I believed that crap?" he scoffed. "You really think I'm stupid."

Nazuna got to her feet, primly dusting off her kimono and hakama.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She turned to walk back to the camp, but Inuyasha grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back, pushing her against a tree.

"I'm tired," she complained. "I want to go back to sleep."

"Oh well," he said, still holding her. "So sad, too bad."

She gave him a hard look.

"Don't go thinking I'm a nice guy like Nobunaga," he told her.

"I promise you, I have no such delusions!"

"Answer the question, Nazuna," he said.

"Why do you even care?" she demanded.

"Let's get one thing straight," he said. "If anyone's an idiot here, it's you."

Her expression stiffened.

"After all our history, you don't get by now that I care? What do you want me to do, Nazuna?"

Now her eyes widened again, and she stared at him in amazement.

"Inuyasha..."

She swallowed hard, and her jaw set again.

"I didn't say that you did not care, I asked you _why_ you cared."

"Because if I know why you left, I can stop you from doing it again!"

Nazuna shook her head. "That doesn't...

She stopped, growing quiet.

"Oh," she murmured. "I see. You think it was your fault."

He said nothing and held her gaze until she dropped her eyes and looked away, shaking her head.

"Inuyasha," she whispered. "That's so stupid."

"I know you like Nobunaga, and you don't seem to have any problem with Jinenji."

"It had nothing to do with you!"

"Then what? Is it Nobunaga? I know he's sweet on you. Do you not like him?"

She did not answer.

"If you don't want to be with us anymore," he said. "I won't make you. But you have to have somewhere safe to go, OK?"

"Somewhere safe," she repeated, gazing in the distance.

"Very well, Inuyasha," she said, putting her hands over her heart. "I promise, OK? I won't leave like that again."

"That's all I needed to hear."

She went back to her blanket and Inuyasha resumed his guard over all of them. Not for the first time, he wondered if Kagome would know what to say, what to do.

"You can't get here fast enough," he whispered.

The faint morning light had barely reached the back of the cave, but Yuka knew that many people around her were already awake and moving about. She opened one eye, just enough to see the shadows of feet and legs, dancing in the light cast on the cave walls by several fires.

She closed her eyes tight again. Yuka did not want to get up. She did not want to look at caves, mountains, wilderness, and, most of all, wolf demons.

_I'm so tired,_ she thought.

She began to drift off to sleep again. A jolt ran through her body and yanked her awake again. She knew without needing to remember it that she had dreamed again. It was the same dream that she had had since moving into the Higurashi shrine. She was about to lose control of her car, about to go careening over the fog-blanketed edge, when she collided with a wolf.

It is always unsettling to have repeating dreams, because it implies that one's mind is obsessively digging at something, something that's buried deep and probably should remain so. Now, of course, it was even more unnerving. It was one thing to have that dream back in Kagome's bedroom, back in...

_in my own time_.

Back then she thought the people around her were crazy, maybe that she was crazy, but in truth she had no idea what crazy could be, not then.

She opened her eyes, now determined to stay awake. She sat up, and then she saw him. Kouga was resting on the balls of his feet, looking at her.

"I was just about to shake you awake," he said. "The others are eating. You should too."

He walked away before she could say anything. She saw that Higurashi, Eri, and Ayumi, dressed in furs up to their ears, were kneeling around a fire and eating something with their hands, some kind of meat.

"Ayumi-chan," Yuka threw off her blankets and went to her friend. "Are you feeling better?"

"Oh yes," the girl smiled. "Much. I hardly hurt at all now."

Ayumi's smile was wan and tight.

_At least she's strong enough to fake it._

Yuka ate what was offered to her by Fuu. It was meat, and though she was not sure what kind, it had none of the unwholesomeness of what the monster had forced her to eat.

"It's just rabbit," Fuu told her. "It's not much, but time's are hard."

"Thank you very much," Yuka was amazed to hear herself say.

"Give them as much as you can spare," Kouga said to Fuu. "They are weak and they have a long journey ahead of them."

"Yes, but you'll be doing all the running, correct?" Fuu smiled at him.

"Are we going somewhere?" Eri asked.

"Yeah," Kouga answered. "I've decided. I'm taking you back to Edo."

Yuka looked at Higurashi. The woman's expression was pensive, and Yuka could not tell if she agreed with the decision, or not.

"Find someone strong who can be spared," Kouga said. "At least strong enough to run all day while carrying a woman. I don't want to have to carry two again."

"Yes, my lord," Fuu bowed and left them.

Yuka gulped down every morsel of food she was given. She was then surrounded by fussing, female wolf demons and, though she would not have thought it possible, she was wrapped in even more furs. At the end of it, she could barely bend her arms and legs. When one of the women began twisting her hair, she felt they were taking things a bit far.

"Are you bundling my hair, now?" she asked in consternation. "I don't think it will freeze."

"We are braiding it," one of them answered. "Kouga complained that it was too long and got in his way."

Yuka was indignant.

"Well," she huffed. "_Excuse me."_

"For what?" one them peered at her, puzzled.

"Forget it."

She had to admit, she had indeed let her hair get out of control since moving to the shrine almost six months ago. The two female wolf demons, however, worked through her locks with astonishing, synchronized speed, and produced what looked like two, twisted ropes that fell from behind each ear. For all the preparations, they were all ready to go in a quarter of an hour.

Kouga announced that it was time to leave by presenting his broad back to Yuka. He knelt on the ground in front of her and said simply, "Up."

"Wouldn't you rather carry Higurashi-san?" she asked. "I mean, the two of you seem to have a lot to talk about."

"We all run fast," he said. "But there's fast, and then there's me. You're already used to it. So stop your yapping and let's go."

"Alright, alright," she said. "Don't get excited."

Yuka didn't _feel_ all that used to it. She still had to fight the urge to scream almost constantly, as they sped through the countryside. It seemed to her that it was more than trees blurring by, as if one were on a bullet train. It felt to her that she was being twisted as well. Sometimes she saw the sky, sometimes the ground.

_It's like a tornado. I'm in a tornado._

Realizing that did not help. The only thing that did was keeping her eyes closed. She screamed once, however, when she was sure they must have collided with something unyielding, like a tree, or a continent.

"Yuka-chan, are you OK?" it was Higurashi-san's voice.

"Um...yeah, I think so. What happened?"

"We've stopped."

Yuka opened her eyes. They had not collided with anything; they had merely come to a sudden, heart-stopping halt. The wolves had stopped running and were now standing in a thin stand of young pines. Judging by the light, it was mid-afternoon.

"What is it?" she whispered to Kouga. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he said. "We just ran into someone we know."

"Huh?" Yuka looked around, but she saw only Higurashi and her friends, and the other wolf demons.

"Kouga-sama," one of them, the one Yuka did not know, spoke up. "Are you sure it's not a foe?"

"You worry too much, Tadashi," Kouga laughed. "He's about as dangerous as a kitten."

He shrugged his shoulders in an impatient, agitated movement, and Yuka let go, sliding off his back.

"Hey," he called out. "Hachi, isn't it? We won't hurt you. We're friends of Kagome."

At first, nothing happened, but a rustle in the forest floor bed of leaves drew Yuka's attention and she almost screamed again when a giant dog stepped into the light. The creature was not much taller than she, but it had paws instead of hands and feet and a tanuki head instead of a human head.

"What is that?" Yuka cried.

"It's alright, I said," Kouga told her. "He's a friend."

"You're Kouga, right?" the raccoon-dog spoke up, much to the increased discomfort of the humans.

"Demon!" Eri shouted.

"Yes," Kouga rolled his eyes. "He's a demon, I'm a demon, we're all demons! Shut up already!"

He turned back to the raccoon-dog.

"Have you seen Kagome and the others?"

The creature took one look at him with its large, liquid eyes and let out a loud, pitiful cry. It buried its face in its paws and sobbed uncontrollably.

Kouga started and even took a step back.

"What...what the hell is the matter with you?" he demanded.

"Oh, Miroku-sama," it wailed. "I fear I will never see him again."

"Will you stop that?" Kouga shouted at him.

Ginta and Hakkaku exchanged glances and shrugged, but said nothing. Yuka looked at Higurashi but the woman returned an expression of complete confusion, but not any fear.

"It's terrible," the creature continued to sob. "So terrible."

His lamentations were cut off and he fell to the ground in a heap. Kouga stood over him, shaking his fist, and the raccoon-dog sat up, rubbing his head.

"Ow, that hurt," he complained.

"Well I told you to stop that blubbering. You call yourself a demon? Give me a break."

"Sorry," the raccoon-dog bowed. "I just...I've been searching for so long."

"So then I take it you haven't seen any of them."

"I saw Shippou, a few months ago."

"Geez," Kouga sighed. "I saw him more recent than that."

He turned to the others.

"This is Hachi. He's a raccoon-dog demon, but he's harmless. Wouldn't hurt a flea. Hachi, these woman are friends of Kagome's. That one is her mother."

Hachi looked up with wide eyes and stared at Higurashi in amazement. He dashed to her and bowed low. Higurashi smiled nervously.

"We were on our way to Kaede's village," Kouga told him.

"That won't do you any good," Hachi said. "I was just there."

"What?"

"I searched for days, all around, but could find no evidence that any of them had been there for months, many months."

Yuka looked at Higurashi again, and this time she thought she had paled noticeably.

"Also," Hachi continued, "the priestess Kaede-sama is dead."

Kouga, who had been watching Higurashi, and seemed about to speak to her, whirled back to Hachi.

"Dead? When? How?"

"It's been about a week, I think," Hachi answered. "The villagers said a terrible demon came, looking for Kagome-sama. He killed a lot of people. They say he tortured Kaede-sama to get information about Kagome-sama—like where she was from, who was her family—and then he killed her."

Yuka, without consciously considering it, began to edge away from Kouga. The wolf demon's jaw and fists, his whole body, were clenched.

"That...that bastard," he growled.

"Kouga...Kouga-kun," she whispered.

He started and turned to her, surprised.

"Who was this Kaede?" she asked.

"She took care of Kagome, when Kagome came here," Higurashi said.

Yuka looked at Higurashi and noticed the tracks of tears on her cheeks and chin.

"Now what, Kouga-sama?" Higurashi asked.

"I told you not to call me that," he said.

His shoulders slumped.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Maybe we should go back," Ginta said. "Our kin are fighting those monsters off to the west. We should go to them."

"But we've come this far," Kouga argued. "We should go on to Edo."

"You heard the raccoon-dog," Ginta said. "What's the point of that?"

"The well is still there," Higurashi said.

"So, you intend to go back then?" Kouga asked her. "Without Kagome?"

"No," she answered. "But we can send these girls back."

Yuka and her friends turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Yuka cried.

"They have no business here," Higurashi went on, ignoring her. "And if I send them back, I know there will be someone to look after Souta. But I...I cannot leave until I've seen Kagome."

"If you think I'm leaving you here," Yuka declared, "you are crazier than I thought."

"Why can't you for once do as I say?" Higurashi turned on her.

"How do I know if you will ever find Kagome? How can you think, after everything I've gone through until now, that I would just leave?"

"Yuka-chan, don't be stupid," Eri said.

Yuka stared at her. "What did you say?"

"We don't belong here. I, for one, want to go back home. So does Ayumi-chan. Look at her, Yuka!"

Yuka turned. Ayumi, dressed in the same furs as the rest of them, her thick hair wild and tangled, stood apart with her head bowed. Ayumi's wound had begun to heal, though to Yuka's eyes it still looked horrible. Now her face was always pale and grave. Yuka understood in that moment that her friend had been marked by pain and terror. That mark was as visible as if it were a blazing brand on her forehead.

"I do wish to go home," she said quietly.

Yuka could say nothing. They were right; she knew they were right, but still, every cell in her seemed to be crying out against going through the well.

"I can't," she said. "Don't you see I can't?"

Now Eri turned away.

"None of this matters," Hakkaku declared. "We should not go to Edo just to send these women back home."

"Idiot!" Kouga shouted. "What do you mean? That's exactly what we should do. Do you want to be the one to tell Kagome that we got them killed?"

Hakkaku flinched.

"Enough of this talking," Kouga said. "We're going, right now."

He turned his back to Yuka and knelt, but she crossed her arms and stepped back.

"No way," she said. "I'm not going."

"The hell you say?" he turned on her. "You're sure as fuck not staying here!"

"Yuka-chan," Higurashi said. "Do as he says."

"No!"

"Look, we're going," Kouga told her. "We can do it the easy way, or the hard way, but it won't make any kind of difference to me."

She glared at him.

"Kouga-sama! Look!"

Tadashi was pointing to the path ahead of them, which was winding away, disappearing into the shadowed forest. Now, standing on this path, was a woman, dressed in gray and white fur, with long red hair. She came closer to them, but not by walking. She floated above the ground, from one spot to another, in speedy jumps.

Yuka's blood ran cold.

"What is that?"

Kouga's face was whiter than the moon. He stood frozen, sweating in the frigid air.

Ginta and Hakkaku both cried out, in anguish and terror.

"It's Ayama-sama!" they wailed. "Her ghost is come!"

The apparition was now standing amongst them. Higurashi looked at her face and gasped, her hand going to her mouth.

"The Sacred Iris!" she cried.

Ginta and the others turned to her, stunned, but Kouga remained locked in place.

At last, he closed his eyes, and swallowed hard.

"I get it," he said in a low voice. "I heard you. You can leave now."

Just like that, she was gone. There was not even a wisp left where she had been standing. A quiet descended on them. Yuka looked at her friends; they were pale and trembling, but she herself felt numb.

What will happen now?

When Higurashi broke the silence, it was in a low, strained voice.

"Is it true, what she said?"

Ginta and Hakkaku exchanged glances.

"What do you mean?" Hakkaku asked her. "I didn't hear her say anything. Did you guys?"

Ginta and Tadashi shook their heads.

"Kouga-kun," Higurashi said. "I know you heard it."

"What was it?" Ginta asked her.

"I heard her voice in my head. She said: Those who fight Naraku...you all fight and lose for the same reason—

"Stop it!" Kouga shouted at her. "Don't say it!"

Higurashi flinched.

Yuka's eyes went from Kouga to Higurashi. Kouga's eyes shone; his mouth was tight and rigid with anger. Higurashi backed away, but her expression was not of fear, but of pity.

"I won't pretend to know what's going on here," Yuka said. "But what does it mean for us? Where are we going?"

Kouga looked at Eri and Ayumi.

"I'm sorry," he said to them. "You'll have to be brave a little longer."

He turned to Yuka.

"I hope you like being on my back," he said. "You're gonna be there for a while. We go west."

[End of Chapter Twenty-Five]

[Next Chapter: The Aftermath]


	26. The Aftermath

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Six: The Aftermath**

"_Oh, look what you've done,_

_You've made a fool of everyone." – Jet_

Kagome sat listening to the soft sighing of the rain. It was almost midday, but the light in the kitchen was still gray and wan. Outside it was cold, but not as cold as it had been and she would have opened the window, if not for Rin.

Rin lay beside her on a makeshift bed, reclining on a pile of pillows. She was sleeping, but she seemed restless and uncomfortable. She shifted her weight, furrowed her brows, and occasionally whispered and moaned in her sleep. The sound of her fitful rest, of the gentle rain and of the small cooking fire, were all the company Kagome would have this morning.

Last night everyone slept in the kitchen, which Kikyou sealed off by nailing heavy blankets over the doors and windows. With her customary stern countenance, she instructed them all that under no circumstances was Rin to be left alone or allowed to catch a draft or chill. Jaken blustered, but a steely glance from Sesshoumaru stifled him.

That was the last time Kagome saw the master of the house. In the months she had been living here he had paid almost no attention to her, for which she was grateful. She could almost pretend that her present circumstances were not connected to him at all—that she, Kikyou, and Kohaku were living in an old house that echoed with emptiness, a temporary arrangement.

But yesterday, when she returned to the land of the living again the first thing she saw was Kikyou's face, ravaged with weeping. The next thing she saw was Sesshoumaru looking down at her, and the look he gave her left an indelible mark of dread and anxiety in her heart. Now she sat next to Rin, listening to the rain, fidgeting her hands, and wondering, obsessing.

_What was it? That look. What's the matter?_

But the moment was brief and then he was gone.

She _had_ been dead. No one wanted to talk about it, not even Tamotsu, but it was irrefutable. She could try and pass it off as a dream, but she knew better. For some immeasurable period of time, she had walked in the afterworld. Like the odd look of Sesshoumaru, the memory of Izayoi's gentle sorrow still haunted her.

Kagome let her body sag against the wall.

"Jii-chan," she whispered.

_Commander. _That's what Death had called her. _Commander._

How can something so vital be so small and frail?

Sesshoumaru stood on the terrace that faced the northern plains. The ghost of the wolf demoness stood next to him, straight and determined as an arrow. Most of the evidence of her violent death had faded and she was now just a mild shade. The rain fell on his head and turned his hair to a gray, damp silk, but she remained dry.

"Can you talk yet?" he said aloud.

She did not reply.

"Maybe it is that you will not talk to me," he suggested.

She still did not turn her head, but a sardonic smile touched her lips.

_What do you plan to do about it? Kill me?_

"Maybe you hate me," he went on. "Either you will, or you will not. There is nothing I can do about it now."

No response.

"I have many questions. Can you answer them?"

This time, she gave a slight shake of her head.

"Then why are you here?"

Silence.

"I do not intend to offend you. I only ask…" he trailed off, overcome for a moment by the notion that he was an absurd spectacle, most likely appearing to any onlooker that he was talking to empty air.

He pressed his lips together.

_No one is here to see anyway._

In his mind he heard the words of Death again.

"_A wise decision, General."_

Nearby, his mother had been weeping.

"Was it really all in vain?" he did not realize that he had spoken out loud until the sentence was gone.

She did not move, but he heard her words in his head.

_Those who are fighting__ against Naraku do not fight to survive, as some of you think, or even for a higher cause, as you all think, but you all fight and lose for the same reason: pure and simple pride._

_But of course, you already know this._

Sesshoumaru was silent. The words did not surprised him in the least, but he had expected their deliverance to be virulent with anger and blame. That was not it at all. He understood at last that it was never, had never, been about that at all.

"If I knew then what is so…" for a moment he trailed off lamely, before he found his voice again. "…what seems so obvious now, you would still be here."

She did not respond, but now Sesshoumaru sensed a growing frustration, as though she wanted to reach him but was prevented from doing so.

_Where are the answers?_

In a dark and isolated corner Kikyou sat staring out with bloodshot eyes at the gray veil of drizzle. The window was open only a small crack, but the air coming in was frigid, each breeze reminding her that she was now a normal, human woman, as vulnerable to the cold as any girl thinned by months of worry and privation. The sake she was consuming, however, cup after cup, was doing a decent job of shirking the chill.

She had been sitting there, alone, since before dawn, after spending the long watch of the night staring into the fire in the kitchen until it died, listening to Rin's traumatized lungs fight to recover.

Before she left the room, she gave Kagome firm instructions to stay with Rin. She did not know where any of the other inmates of the Hyouden were, and she did not care. Not after three cups.

She failed. There was no escaping that fact, or at least four cups was not enough to elude it. She did all that she should. She surrendered to destiny, to her duty, time and time again. Kagome's beating heart called to her and she answered. Midoriko told her not to leave her, so she stayed. With painstaking care, she rendered the madhouse livable, and oversaw Kagome's recovery and education.

All for nothing. Kagome lived again, to be sure, thanks only to Sesshoumaru's unspeakable sacrifice, but how long before she failed once more? And next time, there would no recourse.

Her mind replayed the image of Sesshoumaru, tossing away his sword. Forsaking it.

"_A wise decision, General."_

Kikyou still winced at the mere memory of the voice of Death.

Bridges burned.

Cup five.

"An attack could come again."

She turned too quickly and had to grab the window sill because it seemed certain that her head would just roll right off. Tamotsu stood staring at her with his arms crossed. She turned her back on him.

"Go away."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like?"

He picked up the half-empty jug. "It looks like you've had enough."

She glared at him.

"The day I am chastised by a demon," she snatched the bottle away.

He stared at her. "Oh, I see. A demon is not good enough to advise you, but good enough to support you."

"Support?" she demanded.

"Yes, support! You are completely ignorant of what Sesshoumaru and I have done to make it possible for you live here, in idle luxury."

"Ha!" she mocked him, and waved her hands over the cold floor and barren walls. "Yes! What luxury!"

She threw the jug at him. He dodged it easily and it crashed into the far wall. The fragments scattered and the remaining saki disappeared into the wood.

"Have you lost your mind?" he turned on her.

"Hasn't everyone?"

"If Sesshoumaru hears you destroying his crockery, he may decide you are no longer worth the trouble."

She laughed at him scornfully.

"Yes, _now_ he will be fed up. Not when he was nearly ruined by rain, not when we took over his house, not when his lands were overrun by vermin, not when he surrendered his birthright. No, it will be the pottery that pushes him over the edge."

"Don't take him for granted, woman," he said to her coldly. "Midoriko said—

"Damn Midoriko! Damn Sesshoumaru! And damn you too!"

He was on her. Her back collided with the wall, and the edge of the window sill dug into shoulder blade. Kikyou grit her teeth.

Opposing forces met in a white, electric edge that appeared between them.

"So you're going to purify me now?"

"I'll purify something," she declared, "if you do not release me."

"So you want to live then?" he asked. "Funny."

His grip did not relent, though his hands began to singe.

"Things will not always go your way, Kikyou. You cannot win every battle."

"You know nothing—

She started to retort, but he clamped one hand over her mouth. She glared at him, and the assault of her inherent power strengthened. He winced and let her go, pulling away quickly and shaking his hands as if to dry them.

"Now is not the time to give up."

She turned her back on him.

"Leave me alone, Tamotsu."

On any other day, Kohaku would be long gone by this time. This morning he woke up in a hall of the Hyouden, sitting on the floor with his back against a door, with Kirara curled almost all the way around him. He found that there was a heavy blanket draped over his shoulders and he surmised that Kikyou had done it.

For a few precious seconds, his mind was protected by the sleepy clouds of morning. Then it all came back to him, a swell of terrible visions that could not be shrugged off as nightmares.

The heads and limbs of those men, pouring out blood and soaking the dead garden. Blood freezing on the ground. Blood pooling on the stone floor of the baths. Rin's blue lips. Midoriko's wringing hands. Chiyoko's dismay and confusion.

"_It's Death!"_ Jaken had whispered to his lord. _"Death has come!"_

The feeling of endless, inevitable, and undefeatable cold.

He saw Kikyou kneeling before Sesshoumaru, bending and pulling aside her hair to reveal her white neck.

"_Go ahead,"_ she urged him. _"Get it over with."_

"_My son would never do that!"_

"_My lord…"_ It was Jaken again. "_Don't_."

Kohaku shut his eyes and lowered his head. Kirara nuzzled closer to him.

_She must be wondering why we're not out hunting._

Then again, maybe not. Kirara knew full well what happened last night. To her keen nose, the house still reeked of it.

"Kirara," he said softly. "Maybe you should go. Try to find Sister."

Kirara's throat rumbled. She lowered to the ground and closed her eyes. Her tail lashed around her.

"I guess that's a 'no'," he said. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Kohaku shifted his weight restlessly. Sitting on the floor of this hallway, as he had been all morning, was more than a little boring. But there would be no hunting today. He had seen enough blood already.

Jaken searched the rooms upstairs. His bare feet did not make a sound on the wood planks. Sometimes a door, not opened maybe for decades, squeaked in protest and then sighed in surrender, leaving behind a frozen echo. He was looking for blankets. Humans, he told himself, were so weak, they could never have enough.

On this morning nothing was more important than keeping Rin warm and dry. Second to that, was keeping his mind occupied.

The memory of his lord, standing above the recently not-dead-anymore woman, bereft of his heritage, stripped of his birthright…

Jaken swallowed hard, smothering the fear that fluttered like a moth trapped in his ribcage.

Not for the first time that day he told himself: _of his own free will. He gave it up of his own free will._

Did that make it better or worse?

He could not let anything happen to the women. That one thing must be prevented at all cost. So much had been paid already.

"More blankets_,"_ he muttered to himself in his distracting fumbling. "I need more blankets."

With a tenuous hold on a swaying pile that reached well over his own head, Jaken made slow progress down the stairs, and nearly broke his neck tripping over Kohaku. Kohaku stumbled over himself apologizing, and he hastened to open the door. Jaken pushed through the hanging curtain. He took a few steps into the room, trying to crane his neck to see where he was going. He was surprised when most of the articles were taken from him and he found himself looking up at Kagome. She clutched the covers in her arms and stared at him with wide eyes.

"They're for all of you," he said.

She nodded and turned away, depositing everything in a pile in a corner.

Compared to the rest of the house, the air in the kitchen was warm, almost suffocating, and Jaken wiped his brow. He went to Rin's bedside and sat on the floor. Kagome sat down on the opposite side, still looking at him.

"What is it?" he growled.

She jumped. "Ah! It's nothing! Just…"

"Just what?"

"I…I'm glad you're here."

Jaken's little hands gripped his knees a little tighter, and he pressed his lips together, almost in a grimace. He could not look at her, let alone answer, so they sat in silence, listening to the soft rain, so much softer than Rin's labored breathing.

Tamotsu found Sesshoumaru standing on the terrace in the rain.

"Damp, isn't it?"

Sesshoumaru did not answer. Tamotsu stood beside him.

"I think it's just ordinary rain," he said. "If that's what you're worried about. It'll pass. It won't be like last time."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

Tamotsu smiled. "I really believe it."

"That makes one of us."

Tamotsu sighed. "So I'm off."

He stood on the terrace wall.

"I think it's best that you stay here."

"I am aware of that."

"I'll do what I can," Tamotsu waved a short kind of salute and then he was gone.

Sesshoumaru stood watching his silver light disappear across the land. The rain tapered off.

The wolf demoness remained standing beside him. He could feel her laughing at him, gently, as the rain stopped altogether. He was about to say something, when a strange presence somewhere nearby announced itself with a buzzing rattle in his ears. At first, he almost waved it aside, but then he felt it again, and this time it was louder.

From inside the house he heard Kagome's voice ring out.

"Kikyou!" she called in alarm.

What in the hell could be the matter now?

Kagome flew into the room, panting.

"I know, I feel it too," Kikyou said.

"It's near," Kagome said. "Or…it's very large."

"I think it is more likely the latter."

"But there aren't any shards left but Kohaku's and Kouga's," Kagome said. "Naraku has the rest."

"Correct."

Rin, meanwhile, was looking back and forth at them. She was still in her warm bed, not having been permitted to rise yet. Jaken sat in the corner.

"What is it?" she asked them. "What's the matter?"

"We sense a jewel shard," Kagome answered. "A large one."

Jaken scurried to his feet. "Are you sure?"

Kikyou gave him a withering glance. "Of course I am sure."

"Does that mean Naraku is coming here?" Rin asked.

"I knew it!" Jaken wailed. "I knew this would happen!"

"Please remain calm," Kikyou said. "We did not say Naraku had it. I would sense that demon if he were anywhere near."

"But—

"I do not have an explanation, but I know it is not Naraku."

"We must tell Sesshoumaru-sama," Jaken said.

Rin nodded.

Kikyou closed her eyes for a moment.

"There is no need," she said after opening them.

"What?"

"He is gone."

"Gone?" all three of them exclaimed.

"I think he is moving in that direction."

"He has already sensed it himself and taken steps," Jaken said proudly. "There is no need for us to be concerned then."

Rin seemed in agreement with this as well.

"That's Sesshoumaru for you," Kagome said, sitting down again. "Always showing the initiative."

Kikyou sighed. "We will just have to wait for his return."

They did not, of course, have to wait long. Kagome and Kikyou knew even before he landed on the terrace again that he was carrying a small, but precious, cargo.

"Oh, shit," Kikyou murmured. "We are in for it now."

A half a minute later, Sesshoumaru strode into the room. He held out one white hand.

"Which of you will take it?"

"Kikyou, of course!" Kagome exclaimed, rather quickly.

"Do not be absurd," Kikyou responded.

Sesshoumaru gave them a level gaze.

"Kikyou!" Kagome said. "Come on, _you're_ the protector of the jewel."

"I _was._ Then I died, remember?"

"Oh, that is low!"

"Besides, are you not the Everlasting Light?"

"I don't even know what that means!"

Sesshoumaru evidently did not feel the need to observe this exchange. He simply went to Kagome, who was standing closest to him, and deposited the chunk of rock in her hand. She stared up at him, startled, but he turned his back on her and moved toward the door.

"Wait!" she said. "At least tell us what happened. Please, Sesshoumaru. It could be important."

He turned back and looked at them all. A brief flicker of irritation cross his features.

"Very well," he said at last. "You may be correct. I took the jewel fragment from a demon, who was traveling, alone, across the southeast borders of my land."

"What sort of demon?" Kagome asked in a small voice.

"A large one. He smelled of humans, and he reeked heavily of Naraku. I interrogated him, but he was disinclined to converse with me. When I informed him that he was trespassing, he put up some…resistance."

Sesshoumaru flicked his wrist and a few droplets of black blood sizzled in the kitchen fire.

"It was short lived," he said.

Kagome shuddered.

"This is quite strange," Kikyou commented.

"Definitely strange," Kagome said. "This is not all the jewel that Naraku had. He must have split it again."

She fretted and furrowed her brow.

"Why would he do that?" she wondered. "Why would he then give it to a demon that could so easily be defeated."

"Easily defeated by Sesshoumaru-sama," Jaken interjected.

"Yes, but Naraku would have known that."

"He must have been forced to," Kikyou said.

"By what?"

"I have no idea, but it had to have been dreadfully important to him."

"Either that," Jaken said, "or his hubris was his undoing, as I have always said it would be."

"Naraku is not dead yet, Jaken-sama," Kikyou said.

"No, but he has far less of an advantage, I would say."

"Jaken is right," Kagome murmured.

The little demon puffed himself up.

"Naraku has lost a great deal lately," she went on. "Besides this Jewel shard, he was injured on the Plateau, of that I'm sure. I also know that he lost Kagura and cannot regain her."

"What?" Jaken and Rin exclaimed. "How do you know that?"

"I freed her," Kagome looked up at them surprised. "At least, that's what Midoriko said. Didn't I mention that?"

"No!"

"Oh, well, I did," Kagome mumbled, distracted. She turned the stone over in her hand. "The trouble is, other demons will sense that it is here."

She was about to say something to Sesshoumaru, but he had left the room unnoticed.

Later that day, Kikyou came across Kohaku in the hallway.

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Nothing else to do. Kagome-sama and Jaken-sama are inside with Rin-san."

"Come with me," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He stood and fell in beside her. They walked down the hall to the front entryway and out of the house. He could hear the distant booming of the sea below.

"I'm so relieved that the rain stopped this time," Kohaku said.

"Yes," Kikyou nodded. "Maybe things are returning to normal."

"I…I don't know," he said. "What would normal mean? The three of us living with Sesshoumaru-sama?"

Kikyou did not answer.

"I heard Jaken-sama saying that Kagome-sama had managed to free Kagura," he said. "Is that true?"

"So it would seem."

"But then, do we know where she is? I mean…" Kohaku sighed and shook his head. "Is she alive? If she was freed, meaning that Naraku can't control her directly, then…"

He trailed off and for a moment Kikyou was alarmed by the look in his eyes.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Kikyou-sama," he looked into her eyes and now spoke with clear determination, "if that is true, then he will never stop hunting her!"

Kikyou frowned. "Yes, I suppose you are right. He is not the sort to let go."

She gave him a direct look.

"You care about her?"

"Without a doubt," he answered. "I don't mind telling you, she means a great deal to me. Kagura was, for a long time, my only friend. She protected me. She took a great deal of hard punishment on my behalf."

Kikyou looked up at him in surprise. "Is that so?"

He nodded.

Kikyou sighed. "Well, I do not think she is dead. From what I understand, she is one of those who has a destiny that is intertwined with ours."

They fell silent and continued walking around the house to the back gardens.

"Why did we come this way?" he asked her, curious.

"We must not use the kitchen door that leads to the outside of the house," she answered.

"It will allow cold air to chill Rin-san, which could be very dangerous."

"Oh. That makes—

He stopped. They had come to the spot where they were attacked only yesterday. The blood stains on the dead grass were crystallized in the cold, but the body parts were all gone.

"Jaken-sama buried them," Kikyou said, as if answering his thoughts. "Or got rid of them in some way."

"Oh."

Kikyou took his hand.

"You had to, you understand?"

"I don't know," he shook his head. "I don't know if I can say they deserved that."

Kikyou looked at him for a moment.

"Maybe. Maybe not. But you know more than anyone that we do not always get what we deserve."

He nodded, but his eyes were bleary and his jaw clenched.

"Kohaku-kun," she sighed, and pulled him into an embrace.

They sank onto the ground and she put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his head.

"I know. I know," she whispered as he soaked her shoulder, his whole body shaking. "It will be alright."

She looked up and saw that the sky was still a dull gray.

Night came early. Kikyou returned to the kitchen to prepare supper, with Kagome's assistance. Kohaku ate with them, but then immediately left the room again. Jaken remained in his corner, and Sesshoumaru did not make an appearance. Rin, Kagome noted with gratitude, ate well. Color was returning to her face and her eyes were alert, though still a little feverish. Kikyou and Kagome cleared away the remains of their meal, and then Kikyou left the room as well.

"Where are you going?" Kagome asked her.

Kikyou stopped and looked at her. Her dark eyes a mystery.

"Stay with Rin-san," she said.

"But Kikyou…wait!"

She was gone, leaving Kagome alone with Jaken and Rin.

"Kagome-chan?"

Kagome turned to Rin. "Yes?"

"What's the matter?"

"It's nothing." Kagome came to her side, sat down, and patted her hand. "Kikyou's just acting a little strange lately. But she's always been a bit odd, so I guess it's nothing to worry about."

"I think she's very troubled."

Kagome gave her a sharp glance. "Why do you say that?"

"It's a just a feeling I get."

"Do you know why?"

Rin looked away, and began to fidget.

"Rin," Kagome took her hand. "What happened in the baths? Do you remember?"

"I…I…" the young woman stammered, and her eyes filled with tears.

"It's alright. Take your time."

"It was late…after supper. You were in the baths already, and I came in. I asked you about the training with Kikyou, and you said you felt stronger."

In her mind's eye Kagome saw the glowing reflection of Rin's bare feet on the wet stone floor. She heard the trickle of water.

"We were singing one of your songs."

_All you need is love, love. Love is all you need._

"You…you didn't even have a chance to scream. He came in so quietly. You were dead before you hit the floor!"

Kagome closed her eyes and repressed the urge to scream.

"I heard the sound of his knife go into you. When I turned around I saw him looking at me. He was looking at my body. I thought…it was strange, it was as though I knew something, that I hadn't known before. Then I saw you, lying on the floor. There was so much blood."

Kagome felt cold creep over her.

"I knew I should scream, but I couldn't take my eyes off of you. I remember thinking…it was all for nothing, and now I'll never be happy again."

"Then he lunged at me. Then I did try to scream, but he had his hands around my throat before I could. I expected to be stabbed, but instead he dragged me under the water. I remember trying to tear his hands away, and looking up at the surface of the water. Everything seemed so far away. The next thing I remember, I was on the floor, with Tamotsu. I was crying, because I was so scared!"

The girl began to cry weakly. Kagome put an arm around her shoulders.

"It's alright now, Rin-chan," she said. "You're safe."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome saw Jaken come to the other side of Rin, and take one of her small hands in his own.

Kikyou retreated into herself again. She sat on the floor in an empty room upstairs, looking out a window that faced north across the valley of the river below. A small fire flinched and hiccuped in the center of the room, casting fitful shadows on the bare walls. Sometimes she would cast her eyes about the room, wondering what its purpose had been in the past, and why it was empty now.

Of course, much of the house was empty. It was evident that it had built with more people in mind than the two demons and one human girl who occupied it now. Even with the addition of Kagome, Kohaku, herself, and occasionally Tamotsu, the place felt like an abandoned shell, as though a curse had been placed upon it.

The thought of Sesshoumaru's vagrant cousin made Kikyou look out the window again. It was only open a few inches, because the night air was biting, but she looked out at the black landscape and wondered where he was.

He was right, of course. Kikyou was wise enough and mature enough to admit that to herself, in private. Attempting to drown her troubles in rice wine had been foolish, and she was paying for it now with an aching head, burning throat, and touchy stomach. It occurred to her that she would feel better if she drank water, but she chose not to.

To think, a year ago she could not even taste food and drink, and now she was hung over. It was almost funny.

At last, she was forced to close the window. She took one last glance at the faint glitter of moonlight on the shallow river. Tomorrow, there would be no moon at all, and she thought of Inuyasha.

_You can't get here fast enough._

Kikyou closed her eyes. She attempted to sense something of his presence, in the hopeless hope that he was nearby. The first thing she encountered with her searching thought was Kagome's beating heart, but that had become a constant melody in her life. Next she felt the solid pressure of Sesshoumaru's presence, towering but contained. She brushed against Jaken and knew he was near Kagome. She felt Kirara not far from them. Pushing her mind beyond the confines of the house, she could sense nothing at all, only an empty, black canvas.

Just when she had decided to give up the effort, something new appeared, like a single star in the dark. For a second she held her breath, then exhaled and opened her eyes. It was only Tamotsu.

She was thinking about returning to the kitchen when the door opened. She looked up, startled, thinking it must be Kohaku or Kagome, but she saw instead that it was Tamotsu himself.

"I saw the firelight in this room before I got to the house. Why are you here, alone?"

"Why are _you_ here?" she returned.

"The monsters seem to be distracted elsewhere at the moment. I am taking the opportunity to relax."

"Monsters?"

"Yes, the spider-like demons that Sesshoumaru and I have been fighting off."

Kikyou's hand froze for a moment, then she continued feeding sticks into the fire.

"Spider-like?"

"That's right."

"How many are there?"

"More than the stars," he said simply.

"I see," she sighed.

"They are easy to kill, but we never seem to have an effect on their numbers."

Kikyou did not say anything, only looked into the fire.

"You know where they come from, don't you?"

He knelt in front of her, hooking a finger under her chin and lifting her face. She jerked it away.

"I suspect," she answered. "I am sure Sesshoumaru-sama has similar theories."

"Indeed. This Naraku of yours, must be powerful indeed to create so much life."

"He creates only death," she said sharply. "But yes, you are right. He is powerful."

He sat down beside her.

"I was just about to leave," she told him, painfully away of her fidgeting hands.

"Stay for a little while."

For a moment she was silent. A lump had begun to form in her throat and at the bottom of her stomach. Irritated with herself, she looked him full in the face.

"Why do you not just say what is on your mind, my lord?"

He smirked at her, and she returned a look that was cool and unaffected.

"Be careful what you ask for," he said.

"I am sure I cannot be perturbed by anything you would have to say."

Now he laughed out loud.

"OK then. I was just thinking that it's been a while since I've been with a woman."

She stared at him.

"It's the Rains you see, and the monsters. There used to be villages around here where some of the girls were tender and obliging."

"And now they are all gone," she said. "How tragic."

"Yes," he said, not taking his eyes off her. "Unfortunate."

Kikyou endured his gaze, and told herself that if she blushed she would not be allowed to eat for a day.

"There are no tender and obliging girls here," she made her voice as stern and cold as possible.

He smiled. "Are you sure about that?"

"Quite."

She did not foresee what he would do next. Before she knew he was moving, his hands were holding her face, and he pulled her toward him. Her body went rigid and she tried to pull his hands away.

"Stop this," she hissed.

"What do you think they'd do, if they found you out?" he asked, his voice quiet and calm.

"What?"

"You are so protective of your façade, but you are not deceiving me."

"You are a fool. What are you babbling about?"

"You, my sweet Kikyou, are probably the most tenderhearted woman I have ever known."

Now she struggled harder to pull away from him, but he would not relent and she slumped her shoulders. Her head started to droop but he held her up.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked morosely.

"I already said. I'm a wee bit lonely."

"I…I can't. I—

"He is not here."

She stared at him helplessly.

"Look around Kikyou," he whispered. "No one is here. No one will care. No one will even know."

She was still for a moment, then she shook her head again, hard. "Let me go, or I'll—

"I'm not asking for forever. I only want tonight. I only want one tiny piece of that immeasurable affection in your heart."

"You are such a fool!"

"You said that already, but I'm only being honest. I'm not trying to cajole you with promises and flattery. Who cares about yesterday and tomorrow? We've got tonight. Let's use it."

Kikyou's heart was pounding. He brought his face close to hers and gave a tiny smile when she did not try to pull back.

"Besides, aren't you just a little curious?"

She furrowed her brows but refused to look at him.

"You haven't had this body for very long. Don't you want to give it a test? Make sure all the parts work?"

She gasped and knew she was blushing now.

He let her go, but she only pulled away a little.

"I've said it all. Now I'll beg you, if you want. Kikyou, my sweet, won't you please stay?"

Kikyou glanced at the door, then at the fire, then down at her hands. She held them closer to the fire, and felt the numbing cold being burned away. She did not get up.

Tamotsu placed himself beside her, and she let him loosen the front of her haori and kimono, let one smooth, warm hand dive inside and cup her flesh. She gasped and threw back her head, surrendering her neck to his mouth.

One last time, she thought of Inuyasha.

_I know, I am sorry. When it was you, I understood!_

Kagome told herself she was being an idiot, but once the thought entered her head, she was unable to shake it off. She had the distinct impression that Jaken would say more to Rin, that somehow something more would pass between them, if Kagome was not hanging over them. She had been in that room all day anyway; it was a relief to walk out into the cooler air of the hallway. On the floor, Kirara was curled around Kohaku, and they were already asleep.

At first, she thought what she was hearing was her own heartbeat, but she soon realized that the soft thudding came from outside her body. She thought it might have been Kirara's heart, but when she put her face against the large cat's body, she saw straight away that it was not. She held her breath and listened.

It was coming from upstairs. Now she understood. It was Kikyou's heart.

Kikyou had always said that she could hear Kagome's heart beating. It was only reasonable that Kagome would be able to hear hers. A lantern sat on the floor near the sleeping boy and was still lit. Kagome picked it up and held it in front of her, making her way down the hall to the stairs.

She climbed the steps and passed over the spot where Sesshoumaru had picked her up, months before, when she was too weak to get back to the top of the stairs by herself. That seemed like years ago. At the top of the stairs she turned to the right, but quickly felt that this was incorrect, and she turned back to the left, following the lull of Kikyou's heart. Her hand reached out to knock on the door to a room she had never entered before. As far as she knew, it was never used. Why was Kikyou there?

"Miko."

Sesshoumaru's voice seemed to glance in the dark like a keen knife and she jumped violently. A brief image flew through her mind, of the lantern crashing into the wall and setting fire to the whole house. She steadied it upright again, even as she held on to the wall.

"For heaven's sake!" she hissed. "You scared the hell of me!"

"Indeed."

He was staring at her with flat eyes, his face a perfect mask of boredom.

"I'm not sneaking around," she said, a trifle defensive. "I'm just looking for Kikyou."

This statement had no impact on him. He continued to stare at her.

"Well?" she said with some exasperation. "What is it? What do you what?"

"You speak as if I am imposing such an unreasonable burden on you, here in my own house."

Kagome realized that this was the first time they had really spoken, as far as she could remember, since she was brought here. It did not appear to be going well.

"You're not imposing anything," she answered. "You would have to actually say what you wanted in order to impose upon me."

He inclined his head, but was silent. She endured the silence, telling herself that if he did not say anything else within five seconds, she would turn around and go back to the kitchen, where it was warm.

"I require your time and attention," he said.

She gaped at him.

"That expression makes you appear like an idiot."

She clamped her mouth shut, then her eyes narrowed.

"So…then you think I am _not_, in truth, an idiot?"

"Come with me," he instructed, turning around.

Kagome sighed and followed him down the hall.

_Kikyou would tell me to mind my manners,_ she told herself. _So would my mother, come to think of it._

The fire had been allowed to dwindle to almost nothing, and Kikyou pulled on her clothing in haste, her breath steaming in the air.

"Cold already?" Tamotsu's voice was amused. "I had hoped the warmth would stay with you a little longer. How disappointing. I suppose I shall have to try harder…next time."

Kikyou shot him an irritated look. He was still lounging on the side of the fire, without a stitch of clothing.

"Should you not get dressed?" she said pointedly.

He shrugged. "I'm comfortable."

"You have no shame."

He only grinned at her.

She was about to say something else, when she froze. Tamotsu noticed that her face had gone deathly white.

"What is it?"

"Sshh!" she whispered.

Outside the door he heard soft footsteps, and the muffled voice of Kagome, calling out Kikyou's name in a low whisper. Kikyou looked like a mouse in the icy stare of a serpent. To Tamotsu's sharp ears, it seemed that Kagome was very near the door, but then he heard her speaking with someone, and he sensed that it was Sesshoumaru.

After a few tense moments, he said, "She's gone."

Kikyou let out a long breath. She lowered her face into her hands.

"What's the matter?"

She did not answer him.

"I am such a fool," she murmured to herself.

She straightened and lifted her chin, then walked to the door with determined steps.

"Kikyou," he called out in a sharp whisper.

She turned to look at him.

"All the parts work fine, just so you know."

With a toss of her glossy hair, she turned her back on him and left the room.

Kagome sat on the heels of her feet, across a small fire from Inuyasha's brother.

_Half-brother,_ she corrected herself.

"My name is Higurashi Kagome. I was born in a city not far from here, almost five hundred years in the future."

Sesshoumaru's gaze did not waver, and so she continued. He had instructed her, somewhat imperiously of course, to tell him everything, and refused to elaborate on what 'everything' meant, so she was determined to give him his fill of 'everything'.

"Five or six years ago, I passed through an ancient well on my family's shrine, and came here, to the past. The first person I saw was Inuyasha, though he did not see me, not then. He was enspelled."

A small flicker lit up in his eyes, and Kagome assumed he was annoyed at hearing his brother's name. In truth, Sesshoumaru was recalling his visit to the strange house with the large courtyard. He remembered the boy with the bloody forehead, lying on the ground.

"You have a brother…younger. There is a large tree in a courtyard. Your house has two levels."

Kagome took a sharp breath and her eyes widened.

"How…?"

"That is not important."

"Oh, I disagree! How could you possibly know what my world is like?"

"I have been there."

"That's not possible!" Kagome leaned forward.

"The time-traveler has decided to lecture me on what is possible and what is not."

"Yes, well, that's different."

"How so?"

"The well has only ever allowed me and Inuyasha to travel through," she insisted.

"In the first place, you cannot be certain of that, unless you have watched the well for every moment of its existence. In the second, even if that were so, it would not eliminate all possibility of others traveling through at any future point."

Kagome sat down, flustered.

"Your thinking lacks discipline, Miko."

Kagome sighed. "My name is _Kagome. _I don't call you 'Dog Demon', do I?"

"'Lord of the West' would be more appropriate."

Kagome laughed. "Come on. Be serious."

His eyes narrowed but he said nothing.

"Did you pass through the well or not?"

After a moment of silence, he said, "I did not. I went there…in a dreaming state."

She peered at him curiously. "By whose design? Who took you there?"

He gazed back at her but said nothing.

"You may as well tell me," she said. "You know I'll find out, sooner or later."

"What is it like to be dead?"

The question took Kagome off guard. For a fraction of a second, she thought she was going to cry again.

_Am I still mourning for myself?_The thought flitted through her mind like a startled bird, and was gone.

"At first, I didn't know I was dead," she began, "because I never saw the attack. But then, I felt warm, _really_ warm, like warmer than I have felt since before I came here. I was sitting on the banks of a river. A woman's voice spoke to me, and at first I thought it was Midoriko—

"Why did you think it was her?"

"Because…because last time, it was Midoriko that I spoke with, so I just assumed…"

"Last time?"

"Well, I guess I wasn't dead then, just…" Kagome trailed off.

"You are referring to when you were asleep, during the Rains."

Kagome nodded.

"You spoke with Midoriko then. What did she tell you?"

"I…I'm not sure if that's for me to say."

"As you say, you must know that I will find out, eventually."

"Maybe. But maybe Midoriko plans to tell you in her own way, in her own time, as she did me."

He appeared about to speak again, but she stopped him.

"Please, it's late and I'm tired. I'm not like you; I need to sleep."

He regarded her for what felt like a ridiculous amount of time. She looked down at her hands and tried not to squirm under that hard stare.

"One more thing then. If it was not Midoriko, with whom you spoke yesterday on the banks of the river, who was it?"

Kagome hesitated, then swallowed hard. Her mouth and throat felt parched.

"Izayoi."

"I see," was all he said. "Very well. You may go. We will speak tomorrow."

A sullen, sarcastic response came to Kagome's mind, but she bit her tongue and simply said, "Good night" instead.

When she got to the kitchen, Kikyou was under her blankets, appearing as though she had been there for some time, fast asleep.

For the next week, Kagome spent most of her time sequestered away from the others, in a room alone with Sesshoumaru. It was a very trying time for her.

She strove to answer his questions honestly, while still avoiding subjects she was convinced would upset or at least irritate him. Whenever he accused her of being evasive, she fell back on the excuse that she was obeying Midoriko, and tried to appeal to his sense of honor and duty. Her days turned into long rearguard maneuvers of sidestepping and changing the subject.

She soon discovered that, in spite of himself, he shared his cousin's curiosity about her own era, and she used that to her advantage. A little nagging voice told her that it was unwise to divulge so much about the future, but if it kept her alive…

_Just call me Scheherazade._

"How can such a device stay in the air?"

Kagome stammered, then fell silent.

"You do not know." It was not a question.

"Most people don't."

"What you are saying, is that you allow yourself to be carried through the sky, miles above the ground, and you do not have any idea how the device propels itself and does not plummet to destruction."

"Yes, alright? That's true," she answered, exasperated. "But I do know that it _does_ work. People have been using them since before I was born. Just like I know you could carry me through the air, if you had a mind, but I don't know how you do it."

"I am a demon."

"That's 'what', Sesshoumaru, not 'how'."

He appeared annoyed, and Kagome thought of a way to change the subject, again.

After three days, Kagome began putting some of her mental energy into thinking of ways out of these daily visits. Everything about being near Sesshoumaru made her unhappy. He reminded her of where she was, and how long she had been there. His personality, and his flinty regard for her, was a constant rebuke to what she knew Midoriko and others wanted of her. His yellow eyes and white hair made her think of Inuyasha, and she wept in secret from the pain of longing. Hardly an hour passed in any day when she did not sink in self-recrimination.

Every day she feared that some demon, or demons, would sense the jewel and come to claim it for themselves, but that never happened.

During this time Kohaku grew less remote, Kikyou grew more silent, and Rin grew stronger. After being bedridden for four days, Kikyou declared that her fever had broken, and that it was now safe for her to leave the bed. However, she was still forbidden to leave what they had come to refer to as the 'hot room'.

Rin's temperament did not handle confinement well. Normally cheerful and complacent, she became sullen, temperamental, even obstinate. Kikyou was immune to her moods, but Jaken grew waspish with her. On several occasions, Kagome would flee into the hallways and empty rooms to escape Rin and Jaken's bickering, only to be caught wandering by the master of the house and questioned, examined, and re-examined without mercy.

On one particular evening it was only a few minutes short of midnight before she was released from a particularly trying session with his Implacableness, and when she came into the kitchen she began rummaging through the cabinets without even trying to be quiet.

"What are you doing?" Kikyou's muffled voice sounded irritated.

"Looking for saki," Kagome answered. "I know we have some in here somewhere."

"We do not. I drank it all."

Kagome stopped. "You did _what?_"

"You heard me. You will not find any. Go to bed."

"I can't sleep."

"Then kindly allow the rest of us to do so."

"But—

She was cut off by a garble of mumbled swearing. Jaken emerged from a hive of blankets in a corner. He yawned and scratched one ear.

"How the hell is anyone supposed to sleep around here? Just because you can't sleep, doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to!"

"Well I'm sorry, Jaken-_sama,_" she retorted. "But since you're up anyway—

"Yes, yes, there's more in the cellar. Come on then."

He walked out of the room, lifting the blanket as he went into the hall. Kagome stared after him for a moment, then quickly caught up with him. In the hall, Kohaku did not stir but Kirara lifted her head, blinked at them, then returned to her slumber. Kagome shivered and pulled her coat around her tighter. They came to a heavy, wooden door, which did not slide but pushed open. The cellar stairs were steep and narrow and the heavy blackness threatened to smother their puny light. The floor at the bottom was bare earth, and the room smelled like wet clay.

"Most of the stuff down here was ruined when the Rains flooded the place."

"Really? The water came in here?" Kagome asked curiously, looking around.

"Yeah. Almost to the ceiling. The saki jars are probably alright. Stay here."

Kagome stood still as he moved away, taking the little light with him. She watched it dance in the dark like a lonely firefly. Shuffling and jostling noises came from somewhere ahead and the right. Then there was strange, rattling rumble. Finally, the light came closer and she saw his little green face, distorted by the shadows. Not until he was only three feet away did she see that he was rolling a barrel in front of him.

"You expect me to carry that?" she asked, suddenly understanding why he wanted her to come along.

He sneered at her. Even in the weak light she could see his gleaming eyes and teeth.

"You wanted it."

She threw up her hands.

"Geez, why did you bring me here? You must know that I can't carry it!"

"It's not that heavy," he answered. "Stop being such a baby!"

"I'm not!"

"You expect everything to be handed to you."

"That's not true!"

"Yes it is," he hissed at her. "Kikyou, me, Kohaku, Tamotsu, Rin, even Sesshoumaru-sama, even that cat, you treat us all like your servants. Like _you're _the princess of this house!"

"Oh, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes I do! You don't give orders maybe, but in the end it's the same thing isn't it? Ever since you came here it's been 'poor, pitiful Kagome'." He mocked her voice, "'I can't walk, I can't carry that, I need someone to help me, I need someone to feed me, I know I should try to find my friends but oh, I'm so weak, I just can't be _bothered'_."

Kagome took a step towards him, her fist clenched. "Shut up, Jaken!"

"Or what? You'll whine me to death?"

"You have no idea what I've been through!"

"Don't be so stupid! I know as well as anyone. I was there, you ungrateful wench, when Sesshoumaru-sama dragged your sorry self here. I saw what you looked like."

"Then—

"That was six months ago. I couldn't believe that a human could survive that and I was beginning to think you were stronger than I thought, but since then you've done everything possible to prove otherwise."

"Just forget the damn saki," Kagome snapped. "I'm going to bed."

"Do whatever the hell you want," he shrugged and turned away from her, leaving her in the dark.

She had to run to avoid being left in the cellar. When they came back into the kitchen, Kikyou sat up.

"I thought you were getting saki?"

"What's the matter?" Jaken snickered. "Need more already?"

She ignored him.

"Just forget it," Kagome muttered.

She burrowed into her blankets and pillow by punching them a few times.

"Everyone, just go the hell to sleep."

"Yes, your highness," Jaken's mocking voice came from the corner.

Kagome clenched her teeth. Kikyou shrugged and went back to sleep.

"What did Izayoi say to you?"

"Well, honestly, not much. She said she was only there to keep me company while I waited."

"Waited for what?"

"For you, I think. She said you may be able to bring me back, but it would not be as easy as it had been for others. She said something may have to be sacrificed, but she didn't say what, or why. Then she left."

"Left? Even though she was only there to keep you company?"

"At that point, she was…she was making room for someone else who wanted to speak with me."

"And who was that?"

"My…my grandfather."

"Don't you think we should continue my training?"

Kikyou, who was sitting by the fire mending a tear in one of Rin's kimonos, looked up from her work, then shook her head and kept sewing.

"I have taught you everything that I can," she answered. "You know the exercises, if you want to practice them. How much stronger you get at this point is up to you."

"I see," Kagome murmured.

They were alone, except for the sleeping Rin. She had no idea what Jaken and Kohaku were up to, but Kagome could hear them walking up and down the halls and across the floors above her head. She felt the presence of Sesshoumaru and Kirara.

"Kikyou? Why have you stayed here?"

Kikyou looked up again.

"What do you mean?"

"If someone had said to me a year ago that you would be with me this long, I would have said they were crazy. I would have expected to you leave a long time ago."

"And go where?"

"I don't know. Where do you usually wander off to?"

"Are you wishing to be rid of me?"

Kagome sighed in frustration. "I didn't say that. I'm just trying to understand…why everything has changed…why you seem determined to stick to me."

"Perhaps it is my…our fate. Perhaps because I am a normal woman, and I feel the need for company, and I have a connection with you."

She snapped the end of the thread with her teeth and set the garment aside. After threading the needle, she pulled something from another pile, a white sock. Kagome sat down near her, drawing her knees up to her chin.

"You mean because we shared a soul?"

"That is not entirely accurate you know, but yes, that is part of it."

"Is that why I can follow your heart beat?"

Kikyou stopped and looked up at her with a level gaze. "Can you?"

"Can't you?"

"I have since I woke up that day, but I did not know you had learned how."

"I didn't really _learn_, per say, it just…happened."

"Hmm," Kikyou continued sewing.

"You said that it was only part of it. What's the rest?"

"We are connected in many ways. Our soul, our bodies, our powers as mikos, our connection to the Sacred Jewel. Naraku is our bitterest enemy. Then there is Inuyasha."

Kagome turned her face away.

"We are both mikos, our fates are tied to the Jewel, and we both lost our virginity to the same man."

Kagome's blood froze and she tightened her grip on her legs. She did not dare look up.

"It is alright, Kagome. I have known for a long time, and it is alright. I know your feelings, and I do not blame you. I would have done the same, in your place."

"No," Kagome whispered, shaking her hanging head. "You wouldn't have. You would never do something so…stupid."

Kikyou did not look up from her sewing, but she sighed.

"It was not stupid. You were young. Your feelings were pure. Things might have gone better for you, if not for me."

Now Kagome put her feet on the floor and sat up straight, looking at her.

"You surely don't feel bad for me?"

"More than a little."

"But…you're the one who—

"Let us not go through this," Kikyou cut her off.

The room was silent for some time. Kagome listened to the crackling the fire. A gradual sound took over and Kagome was startled to realize that it was Kikyou humming to herself in a low, quiet tone. With a start, she recognized the melody.

"All you need is love, love, love is all you need," Kagome sang in a whisper.

Kikyou laughed, a short, wry sound. "It is a silly song."

"Yes, you're probably right."

They fell silent again. The growing dark was now noticeable and the weak light of the cold afternoon was fading under the freezing night.

"I wish things had been different, for everyone," she said.

"I have wished that every day that I can remember," Kikyou replied.

"Do you think it will ever get better?"

"I do not know, Imouto, I really do not now."

"What is the nature of your relationship with the other miko?"

"You mean Kikyou?"

"Yes."

"She is a friend."

"Is that all?"

"She and I share a common bond. We're linked to the Sacred Jewel and to Midoriko, and to each other."

"How so?"

"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru, but that really isn't any of your business. And you wouldn't understand anyway."

"Kagome-chan, would you sing one of your songs for me?"

Kagome twitched from a shallow doze. She was leaning against one of the wooden beams in the kitchen, near the fire. Rin was the only other person in the room. She had no idea where Kikyou or Kohaku were lurking, as she had not seen them since breakfast.

"What was that?" she murmured, blinking in the orange light.

"A song. Would you sing a song for me, please?"

"Oh, yeah, sure."

Kagome straightened and licked her lips.

_Oh, the moon is rising high in the depths of night,  
Silent is the ruined site lying on the ground,_

"No, no," Rin interrupted. "One of _your_ songs."

"Oh. Right. Well, let me think."

As she searched her mind for a tune she felt like singing, she found that the searching turned up some surprising sensations. She felt the demonic presence of Sesshoumaru, Jaken, and Kirara, but to her surprise, she felt Tamotsu, and he was somewhere near Kikyou.

Kagome furrowed her brows. If she concentrated, she could almost sense them as though they were in the same room with her. She could almost hear their thoughts…

Kagome gasped, and her fingers flew to her mouth.

"Kagome-chan? What's the matter?"

"I'll be back," Kagome said in a brisk tone.

Much to Rin's astonishment, she ran from the room.

Kagome flew up the stairs and around the corner, heedless of the dark. Her senses brought her straight to the door of one of the eastern rooms. She banged on the wooden frame with her fist.

"Kikyou! I know you're in there. I'm coming in on the count of three. One…two…three!"

The scene that greeted her should not have surprised her, considering what she had sensed from the kitchen. Kikyou, her face flushed and her hair wild, was yanking her kimono closed, but what shocked her was that Tamotsu was making no effort to cover himself. He got to his feet, making it painfully obvious where his interest in the situation lay. Kagome cried out in dismay and turned her back on him, her hands covering her flaming face.

"That's no way to behave if you've come to join in," he laughed.

"Shut up, Tamotsu," Kikyou snapped.

"Kikyou!" Kagome exclaimed, hovering on the edge of panic. "What in the name of all the demons in hell do you think you're doing?"

"I thought that was obvious," Tamotsu snickered.

"Shut up_,_ Tamotsu!" Kikyou said again. "Listen, Kagome—

"No!"

Kagome turned on her, being careful to keep her eyes away from Tamotsu.

"You listen to me! You have clearly lost your mind."

"So…I take it the fun is over."

"Shut _up_, Tamotsu!" they both shouted.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. Pulling a robe around his shoulders, he walked to the door.

"Fine," he said, his tone somewhat bitter. "I'll leave you to it then."

Waiting until he left the room, Kagome turned on Kikyou again.

"_Really_, Kikyou!"

"Let me make this clear," she responded, her voice chill. "I do not explain myself to you."

"Oh, I see. Well, it doesn't matter anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Get your shit together," Kagome told her. "We're leaving."

"What? Now?"

"Yes, now. It's obviously not a moment too soon."

Kagome stalked out of the room, with Kikyou hurrying after her.

"We cannot leave in the middle of the night, Kagome," she said. "Be reasonable."

"Ha!"

They burst into the kitchen, still arguing with loud voices. Rin and Jaken jumped and stared at them in amazement. Kohaku curiously poked his head in the door.

"I've known for a long time that we should be gone, but it was apparently more urgent than I thought."

"Keep your voice down," Kikyou hissed, casting glances around the room.

"Whatever. They don't need to know why."

"Why what?" Jaken demanded.

"We're leaving," Kagome answered shortly.

"In the middle of the night?" he was incredulous. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Hasn't everybody?" she returned.

He peered at her closely, then clamped his mouth tight and scurried out of the room.

"Where is he going?" Kikyou wondered.

"Who cares?" Kagome shrugged.

"Kagome-chan," Rin's quivering voice piped up. "I don't think this is good idea."

"Rin-chan, do you know of any sacks or packs that can be spared? And blankets?"

"I…I think so."

"Kagome… Imouto…" Kikyou even reached out one hand.

"Don't call me that right now, you're just sucking up to me."

"I do not know what that means," Kikyou said in a prim tone, "but it sounds offensive."

"Why don't you see if there's any food we can—

"Are we in a hurry?"

The three women spun around. Sesshoumaru's tall figure was bearing down on them, striding into the room like an oak among willow saplings. Rin took one look at him and retreated to a corner. Kagome, however, after seeing one dog demon in his birthday suit, was not inclined to be intimidated by another. She stood in his path and crossed her arms.

"Have you come to help us pack?"

"That will not be necessary."

"Whatever you say. You wouldn't miss a few blankets and a little food, would you?" Kagome laughed. "Surely, it's worth it to get rid of us, right?"

"I cannot disagree with that," he answered in a placid tone. "However, unfortunately for me, you are not leaving."

Kagome grew still.

"I see. Perhaps his highness knows something I do not."

"Perhaps he does," Sesshoumaru's face did not change, but his voice had a slight edge to it.

The two of them eyed each other, until a movement caught Kagome's attention. Jaken was listening furtively behind the blanket that covered the door, daring to peek in only a tiny bit. Kagome glared at him.

"What do you want from me?" she turned back to Sesshoumaru. "Why do you interfere? I don't want to be here anymore. Don't you understand? I don't like it. I'm sick of this place, I'm sick of that sneaking, busybody little toad, and I'm sick of you!"

Sesshoumaru took two steps toward her so she had to crane her neck to look him in the eye. He peered down on her as though she were a wayward child.

"You?" he sneered. "You? Sick of _me_?"

Kagome took a step back.

"Who saved you from death, twice? Who gave you sanctuary? Who has kept you safe? Who allowed other humans to come here for your sake? Who has brooked your every bit of nonsense and ill breeding?"

"Ill breeding?"

"Yes. An ill bred girl with no manners, no family, no title, no meaningful accomplishments. I have seen peasant girls in the rudest villages behave more seemly than you."

Kagome flushed, but she did not back down.

"To think," her voice grew louder, and more indignant, "that I would live to be reprimanded on my manners by Sesshoumaru, a dog demon, who has waded through blood all his life and now skulks about an empty house long stripped of any grandeur."

She heard both Jaken and Rin gasp, and she sensed Kikyou's fear. Sesshoumaru's eyes glinted. Kagome tensed herself for a fight. The little pessimist that never left her told her in no uncertain terms that she was about to perish as the biggest moron in history.

_Hope you're ready to die again!_ the voice in her mind laughed almost maniacally.

Unbidden, Midoriko's words returned from beyond six months or more of confusion and loneliness.

"_You are not endowed with enormous fighting powers, sacred or otherwise, but your strength lies elsewhere."_

She felt the demon that was Sesshoumaru, always so contained, come at her in waves, like heat from a kiln. Yet she knew it was still chained. He could release it all and obliterate her and everyone else, probably the whole damn side of the house, like the wall of burning ash that avalanches from a volcano.

_Holy crap! _she thought, _this is what she was talking about! I shouldn't be doing this. It's wrong! If Midoriko were here, what would she say? I'm about to throw it all away!_

"Compared to some."

Kagome's stammering voice broke the charged silence, and everyone stared at her.

"Compared to some I guess I am just a stupid girl."

Her one solace was that not only did Sesshoumaru's power retreat again, but for a moment, a tiny fraction of a second, his eyes widened in pure shock.

"I do my best but I'm made of mistakes," she continued, sinking to her knees.

A long silence followed this unexpected display. Jaken stood stupefied. From Kikyou, she sensed only relief.

"Are you still set on leaving?" the master of the house asked her.

"No," she answered. "But…but in the end we may discover that I should have."

"In the end?" his eyes narrowed. "We may never get there to prove it."

Kagome stood up again and looked him in the eye.

"Well, let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair."

From behind her, she heard Kikyou take a deep, shuddering breath.

Sesshoumaru looked at her for a long moment. She thought perhaps he was trying to puzzle something out but, then again, he was as impossible to read as always.

"Be comforted, miko," he said, as he turned away. "You are wiser than previously thought."

After he was gone the air in the room seemed cold and stale. Kagome flopped down on a bench against the far wall with a heavy sigh. Kikyou sat down beside her, silent. Rin sat on the floor in front of them, near the fire. For a while, no one spoke. Jaken and Kohaku looked at each other, shook their heads, and wandered away.

"Kagome," Kikyou said at last. "Please, do not do that again. I nearly had a heart attack."

Kagome glanced at her for an instant, then closed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"I'm still not talking to you."

Kikyou sighed.

"You do know that other demons may come for the jewel?"

"I am unconcerned."

"Of course you are."

"Besides Izayoi, and your paternal grandfather, did you see anyone else?"

"One other. Your mother."

"My mother?"

"At the end, right before I woke up and saw you and Kikyou. She stood over me and reached out her hand. I told her that I didn't understand, but then she said…"

"Yes?"

"She said: 'Beloved, I have suffered through centuries of untold loss and grief, far beyond your understanding, to see you through this. Don't waste it. We must go now.'"

For once, Sesshoumaru had nothing to say.

It was morning and the cold seeped into her bones. It made the very wood of the house shiver. Kikyou fed more kindling into the fire, fighting the urge to pile every scrap of furniture upon it. That morning she had given Rin leave to move about the house, and the girl had jumped at the chance. Kikyou was alone in the room with Kagome, who was still making a point of not even looking at her.

"Are you going to tell Inuyasha?"

Kagome looked up at her, surprised. Then her face grew set.

"No, of course not."

Kikyou was silent. She wanted to say that she was grateful, but was unsure how it would be received.

"But I think you should tell him yourself."

"Do you truly?"

Kagome looked at her again, then looked away. After a few moments, she sighed.

"No, I guess I not."

"I did not intend to upset you, or to disappoint you," Kikyou went on. "But I…"

"You don't really have to explain," Kagome cut her off. "I can hear your thoughts from here. I guess I shouldn't judge you so harsh."

Kikyou blew into the burning embers at the bottom of the fire pit.

"Has it continued?"

Kikyou smiled wryly. "I have not seen Tamotsu since. I think you scared him off."

"Do you still love Inuyasha?"

_Love? Was it ever that simple?_

"I…do not know."

"You're not sure?" Kagome peered at her.

"I am not sure if I know what love is."

Kagome laughed, a short and bitter sound.

"Funny. Me either."

The fire finally grew up, crackling and leaping fitfully.

"Would you care for some tea?"

"Huh?" Kagome turned back to her, her eyes distant. "Oh, right. Yes."

"What is on your mind?"

"I was just thinking that, I wish I knew more."

Now Kikyou laughed. "Funny. Me too."

"I mean about what Midoriko is doing. Sometimes she referred to some other power…an authority higher than herself."

"Well, that makes sense," Kikyou said, carefully hanging the kettle over the fire. "She is, after all, only a human."

"I wish I could meet them, or it, or whatever. I wish I knew what they wanted. And most of all I wish…"

"Yes?"

"I wish I knew what gave them the right to do all this."

Kikyou was about to advise her not to rail against her fate when, to her surprise, the girl was not there.

"Kagome?" she whispered.

She had not heard or seen Kagome stand up, let alone walk out of the room.

"Kagome?" she called out, louder.

She closed her eyes, but was horrified to find that she could not sense the girl. The absence of her beating heart made the silence seem loud and terrifying.

Kikyou turned about the room, on the verge of sheer panic. Then she did the only thing she could think of.

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Sesshoumaru-sama!"

He was there so quickly that she wondered if he had come through the walls and floors.

"What is the matter?"

"She is gone!"

"Who is gone?"

"Kagome!"

"She left?" his expression darkened.

"No, no, you do not understand. She is just gone. She vanished! She was here one minute, then she vanished into thin air!"

Sesshoumaru looked around and his eyes grew distant. Kikyou knew he was searching for the sense of Kagome's presence.

"What happened?" he demanded, turning back to her with accusing eyes "Before she disappeared?"

"Nothing! We were talking."

"Talking about what?"

"I was going to make tea. She said she wanted to know how Midoriko was getting her instructions. The power behind her. Do you see what I mean?"

"I believe so," his eyes narrowed. "It is not an unreasonable desire. I have given it much thought myself, as of late."

This time, there could be no mistake. Kikyou was looking directly at Sesshoumaru when he simply ceased to be in the room. Nothing remained where he had been standing, and all sense of his demonic presence was erased.

Kikyou took a step back.

"What's happening?" she whispered to the room that now contained only her.

"It is alright."

Kikyou jumped and cried out in dismay. Midoriko was sitting in front of the fire, warming her hands as though it was the most normal thing in the world, as though she had just come in from tending the fields and feeding the livestock.

"Oh thank goodness!" Kikyou exclaimed with relief. "What happened? Where are they?"

Midoriko looked up at her and smiled.

"Walking with gods."

Tamotsu made rare appearances at the house during this period. Since it was necessary for one of them to stay at the house to prevent future disasters, Tamotsu spent all of his time fighting off the spider demons. He only came back during the rare moments when the demons seemed scattered and sparse. Sometimes their numbers would dwindle and they would pull back. More often than not during these times, Tamotsu would notice a great deal of commotion to the north, in the range of the Hakusan. In the evenings he would sometimes see the twinkle of a multitude of small fires. During the day, when the wind was moving just right, once or twice he heard the cries of battle. More than once he was tempted to investigate these phenomenon, but the sounds were always just a little too far away, and he did not dare let the Hyouden out of his sight. So he fought, all day every day, snuffing out the lives of the monsters like ants and thinking of Kikyou's hair falling across his chest.

Once he learned of the recovery of a large part of the Sacred Jewel, he feared, like Kagome, that strong demons would appear in masse to attempt to claim it. This fear was never realized. He wondered where all the demons were.

Where is _everybody?_

Almost two weeks after Kagome's temporary death, he caught a lucky break. It just so happened that he was finishing off a small party of Tsuchigumo, which had strayed away from the battles in the northern hills and wandered into the valley, when he saw a dust cloud that could only mean the movement of a large number of persons of some sort. Concluding that it was more Tsuchigumo, he went straight to it, on the other side of the valley near the southwestern edge.

It turned out to not be Tsuchigumo at all, but the herds of the Karauma. They moved in orderly columns, broken into groups of several dozen. At the head of this parade, Tamotsu spotted a female, dressed in simply clothing but with a regal bearing. She sat astride a gray horse that was bearing its heavy armor with little effort. Beside her, a soldier carried a green flag with a white horse running across the field.

_That must be the queen of the horses I've heard of,_ he thought to himself. In moments, he placed himself directly in their path. When she noticed him, the queen smiled, and bent her head, her long hair sliding over her shoulder. When she was closer, she dismounted.

"You don't seem surprised to see me," he said.

She only smiled at him. Behind her, the columns came to a gradual halt.

"So then, I guess you know why I'm out here. What's your story?"

"The same as yours, my lord," she answered, "except further away."

"What do you mean?"

"You, and our lord Sesshoumaru, have been valiantly constraining the activities of the enemy in this area."

He nodded his head. "We do our best."

"But further to the north, it is quite different."

"Yes, I have caught wind of that. Do you know something about it? Are you willing to share your information?"

She bowed again. "For a kinsmen of the Lady of the Hyouden, no favor is too large or too small. It is needful, moreover, that you bring this information to your cousin."

"I guess it's no coincidence then, us meeting here."

"I do not believe in coincidence," she smiled.

He shook his head. "I guess I don't either, not anymore," he sighed. "What do you have to say?"

"To the north, a great battle rages. Many demons, and humans, are fighting for survival. Some of those that are heavily involved, are very familiar with your cousin, and with the Beloved."

"Beloved?"

"Ah…" the queen hesitated. "I never learned her mother-name. But in the prophecies she is the Beloved, and the Everlasting Light."

Tamotsu thought over it for only a second. "You must mean Kagome. Wait," he started, "are you saying that some of Kagome's friends are up there? Fighting Tsuchigumo?"

"In the end, we are all friends of the Beloved."

"Umm…yeah," Tamotsu thought of something. "Did you know about what happened? A couple of weeks ago."

The queen nodded, her face sad.

"Did you foresee it?" his voice took on a very slight hint of threat.

"No, my lord, I do not see all things. I did sense it coming, however, that day."

Tamotsu furrowed his brows. "Oh, I get it. You were the one who warned Sesshoumaru."

"That is correct."

Tamotsu remembered the vision of the woman who came to warn him (whom he later realized had been Midoriko). He recalled rushing towards the Hyouden and seeing his cousin hurrying in the same direction.

"I've been wandering about that," he murmured.

Tamotsu scratched his head, glancing involuntarily towards the north, then back in the direction of the Hyouden.

"You must not leave them," she urged him. "The battle will come to you. That is what you must tell the General."

"I see," he answered, not bothering to ask who she meant by 'General'.

Tamotsu was silent for a moment. Then he bowed to her.

"I won't keep you any longer then. Good luck on your march and may fortune follow you into battle."

She smiled and bowed, then remounted her horse. She clicked her tongue and the animal resumed its regal canter. It seemed to Tamotsu that the rest of the column began moving almost at the same moment, without any signal.

"May you go with all the love and protection you deserve," she called back to him.

Tamotsu watched them go until they were only a dust cloud again, disappearing into the northern foothills. By then the cold sun was sinking into the west.

"I'm not blind," he whispered. "I can see it coming."

[End of Chapter 26]

[Next chapter: We Go to Battle]


	27. We Go To Battle

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: We Go to Battle**

"_The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy." – Friedrich Nietzsche_

Jinenji and Nobunaga were up and about before first light, cooking the beans and seaweed that were all that remained of their meager rations. They had rebuilt the fire in the shelter of the rocky hill. Inuyasha roused everyone else as soon as the eastern sky began to cast off the shade of night.

After a long process of mumbling, groaning, and stretching, they were at last all seated around the cooking fire. Several of these people had never met before a couple of days ago and though they seemed friendly enough, they tended to gather in their accustomed groups. Miroku and Sango, dressed in drab peasant clothes, with thick socks and several layers of shabby kimonos, sat together. Near to them, Momiji, Botan, and Suzi shared their scant meal after murmuring a short prayer over it. They had long set aside their priestess robes, however, as those had become unsafe, so they were dressed in similar fashion to Miroku and Sango. Sango, Momiji, and Suzi had scrounged through their packs to come up with a hodgepodge of spare clothing for Botan. Kyotou sat beside Momiji, his black hair tied back away from his rough and scarred face, falling down the shoulder of an old, black haori. He ate very little, and gave most of his food to Momiji and Suzi. Most people, if they happened across the five of them, would not have given them a second glance, taking them for simple peasants or a poor family.

The same could not be said for the other group, consisting of Nobunaga, Nazuna, and Jinenji. For one thing, despite being lordless, Nobunaga still wore the robes of a samurai, if a little threadbare by now. Nazuna, though pretty, was dressed plainly enough but, as she ate, she spoke to Jinenji in low tones, sometimes smiling at something the colossal demon said back to her. Jinenji's clothing spoke of a certain indifference to both vanity and climate. He sat between Nazuna and Sango.

Inuyasha did not sit. He paced the ground while they ate, taking none for himself, and casting the occasional glance at the eastern sky. More than once, his eyes sought out Sango and Miroku, on their own, as if to be reassured that they were truly there. At last, he took Miroku's staff from the monk's hand and rapped it on the rock face.

"Hey!" Miroku jumped and almost choked on his food. "Be easy with that! It's banged up enough as it is."

He snatched the rod back, but Inuyasha ignored him.

"Everybody listen up," he said. "We need to decide who is going, and where we are going."

The others turned to look at him, puzzled.

"Do you have any ideas?" Sango asked him.

Inuyasha sat down with a sigh, on the ground next to Nobunga.

"Nope."

They were all silent for some time. The fire crackled and birds in the hedges kicked and scratched in the leaf litter. Surprisingly, it was Jinenji who spoke first.

"There is nowhere else for me to go," he said. "I would like to stay with Inuyasha-san, if it is not too much trouble."

"I also prefer to stay with Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga said, though he was looking at Nazuna.

She looked away.

"I also have nowhere else to go," she said.

"We could take you to the nearest village," Miroku suggested.

"And do what?" she asked. "I have no desire to try to start a new life with strangers."

"Besides," Nobunaga added, rather hastily. "There isn't likely to be a welcoming village anywhere around here. People are worried enough about their own; they will not want more mouths to feed."

"What about you, Botan?" Inuyasha turned to the young miko.

"I'm staying with my sister, and I'll leave it up to her."

Everyone turned to Momiji.

"And I will leave it up to Suzi-chan," she said.

Suzi started. "What?" she exclaimed.

"You said before that you wanted to go to a village and give up being a priestess. If you still want that, I will go with you. I won't leave you to strangers."

Kyotou watched them, but said nothing.

"Well?" Inuyasha demanded, impatient. "What's it gonna be?"

Suzi flushed and squirmed at the crowd of eyes suddenly turned her way. She turned to Sango and Miroku.

"I want to know what you want," she said to them.

"Well, we're staying with Inuyasha," Sango said.

"I know that. But do you want _us_?"

Sango and Miroku stared at her.

"Do you want us around?" she asked again. "I want to know if you have…any need of us."

Sango and Miroku looked at each other for a long moment, then Sango rose and went to the girl, kneeling beside her and taking her hand.

"I don't think I should decide your destiny," she said to her. "But, I will tell you the truth. I do want you, Suzi-chan. I would miss you, and Momiji-sama and Kyotou-sama, if you were gone."

Suzi smiled. "OK then. I'll stay with you."

Kyotou exhaled a long, slow breath.

Inuyasha looked at them all in amazement.

"So then…you're all staying? Even though you have no idea where I'm going?"

"It looks that way," Miroku said.

"So, reverend leader," Sango said, her eyes twinkling with mirth. "Where to?"

"I told you already, I don't know!"

"What about Midoriko?" Nazuna said suddenly.

Everyone turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked.

"You remember, back at the old temple, when she came to us? You said that she was enshrined in a cave. Maybe if you went there, she could tell you what to do."

Inuyasha's eyes widened, then he looked at Miroku and Sango.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know," Miroku said. "I wish we had more to go on. I mean, we still need—

"To find Shippou, and Kagome," Inuyasha said. "Yeah, I know."

"What exactly did Midoriko say to you?" Sango asked.

"Uhh…well…," Inuyasha's eyes went distant and he scratched on ear. "She said something about time running short…and the ocean…"

Sango gave him an exasperated look.

"She said," Nazuna spoke up, "you have exactly forty-two days before you must stand before me with all your companions, and believe me, that is not as great a time as it sounds."

Inuyasha looked at her, startled.

"I remember words very well," Nazuna told him. "I can see them in my head."

"That's helpful," Miroku said. "Did she say anything else?"

"She said: Look for me in the west by the sea, in the fields of eternal snow. By the sea, by the sea. And that was it."

"Inuyasha-sama, I for one think that going to the shrine is a good idea."

Several of Inuyasha's companions looked around for the unseen speaker. Inuyasha, however, grunted and made a slap at his neck.

"Oh, it's Myouga!" Sango exclaimed.

"Yes, long time no see, old flea," Miroku said.

Suzi came over and stood on her tip toes, peering at what Inuyasha held up between two claws.

"Miroku-sama, Sango-san," he said. "Good morning to you. It's great to see you again. You're looking well."

"You don't seem surprised to see us," Miroku remarked.

"I actually returned to my lord last night," he said. "I discovered then that he had been reunited with you. I was overjoyed, of course, but you were already asleep."

"Where did you go to?" Nazuna asked him, curious.

"Oh, here and there."

"Yeah whatever," Inuyasha said. "You were saying, you think we should go to Midoriko's cave."

"Well, unless someone here has a better idea."

"What about that 'by the sea' business?" Momiji asked. "What does that mean?"

"I have no idea," Inuyasha answered.

"In the fields of eternal snow," Sango murmured. "That means something, I'm sure of it."

"Wait a minute," Nobunaga said. "Weren't we going to your brother's house originally, because it was in the west and near the sea? But then we got sidetracked."

"Hey Myouga," Inuyasha said, "what did you say that house was called?"

"Uhh…I forget exactly," the flea mumbled.

"Myouga," Inuyasha shook him.

"OK, OK," the little demon cried. "It's the Hyouden!"

"Hyouden?" Sango exclaimed. "That's what that name means, Inuyasha, the fields of eternal snow!"

Inuyasha peered at his vassal with suspicion. "Why didn't you say that, Myouga? Why did you insist we go to Midoriko's?"

"I still think that's the best plan," Myouga insisted. "What good would it do for you to go to the Hyouden? I for one have watched you and your brother bicker enough to last two lifetimes."

"Ah, Inuyasha and his brother are not close," Miroku explained to Momiji and Botan, who were standing near.

"You're forgetting something else," Nazuna said. "This Midoriko said you were to stand in her presence in forty-two days. Assuming she meant the shrine, how long would it take us to get there from here?"

Inuyasha thought it over. "About three days," he said, "at the most."

"Then not enough time has passed," she said. "Not even close."

"She's right," Inuyasha said. "I don't know exactly how many days have gone by since we saw her at the temple—

"Seventeen," Nazuna injected.

"—OK then, not even close."

"So it's the Hyouden," Sango said.

"I still think that is a bad idea," Myouga said.

"Oh, be quiet," Inuyasha snapped at him.

"No, listen," he said. "You got distracted before, right? But what happened? You were reunited with Sango and Miroku."

"So?"

"So maybe you were not supposed to go to the Hyouden!"

"Ugh," Inuyasha groaned in frustration. "I'm sick of all this talk about what we're supposed to do and what we're meant to do. Going to the Hyouden is still the—

"Inuyasha-sama!" Nobunaga's voice was a sharp warning. "Look!"

Everyone turned and saw that Nobunaga, who had climbed the rock ledge to get a better view of his surroundings, was pointing to the eastern tree line. Inuyasha peered into the gloom, not yet lit by the early sun. At first, he thought he was looking at an odd-shaped tree trunk, obscured in the shadow.

"That's a person," he murmured. "Someone is there."

"Oh no," he heard Sango whisper. "It's her again."

"What?" he asked.

Then the gray shadow, which had been distant and vague, moved across the ground in queer, jerky motions.

_It's the paper monster,_ Inuyasha thought, in a moment of sheer, gripping panic.

But when it was closer, he recognized it for the wolf demoness, Ayame. She still wore white fur, and irises in her red hair. One change was undeniable. She was dead.

"Hey," he stammered. "What?"

"Inuyasha," Sango cried. "It's Ayame!"

"Yeah, I see that," he said. "What's she doing here?"

The apparition continued to move toward him, and when she was facing him, Inuyasha knew in his bones that she _was_ the paper monster. She was the one who, in his dreams, had emerged from the dark, shell of a house by the woods, shrouded in funeral paper and wailing with hatred, reaching out with rotting arms to hold him down and snuff out his sanity forever. And just like in his dream, he was frozen, muscles rigidly locked in place.

Her lips did not move, but a voice spoke in his head.

"Those who are fighting against Naraku do not fight to survive, as some think, or even for a higher cause, as you all think, but you all fight and lose for the same reason: pure and simple pride."

"What?" he whispered, unable to think of anything else.

She pointed, extending a straight and determined arm to the northwest, then she was gone.

They did not travel anywhere that day. Jinenji and Nobunaga used the time to forage the surrounding countryside for food. Botan and Momiji were inseparable, and the two of them, along with Suzi, scrubbed clothes in the freezing creek nearby. Miroku spent most of the morning trying to improve the condition of his weathered staff, adding prayers and incantations to the work, just for good measure. Sango attempted to draw Inuyasha into conversation, but after the vision of Ayame he had sat down on the dead grass to stare at the distant mountains and remained there for most of the day, refusing to speak to anyone.

An hour or two after midday, Jinenji and Nobunaga returned with a few satchels filled with nuts and berries, as well as three scrawny hares and one unlucky deer. Kyotou helped them skin and smoke the meat, using the firewood that had been meant for Botan's pyre. The women used the opportunity to hang the laundry nearby, so that it would not freeze. It took nearly all day for the clothes to dry, and the meat was tough and stringy, but at least they were able to sleep that night with full stomachs and in clean clothing, for the first time in months.

The next day dawned as clear and cold as all the others had. Inuyasha had not slept, and he watched the sun rise in the east, thinking about its rays hitting the Mushashi country and wondering if Kaede was awake yet. Nobunaga and Jinenji were already busy gathering more firewood and building up the fire. The others began to stir, pulling on extra clothing and groaning as their stiff limbs and fingers creaked in the cold.

"I wish I could switch places with you, Inuyasha," Nazuna said. "You never seem to be cold."

She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Inuyasha gave her a sharp glance.

"You're not getting sick again, are you?" he asked.

"No. I'm just cold."

She went to the fire and knelt by it, holding her hands.

"We need more supplies," he said.

"I don't know where we can get them," Nobunaga said. "If there are any villages or towns nearby, they won't be generous."

"We may have to resort to drastic measures," Inuyasha answered, his face grim.

"We can't do that, Inuyasha," Miroku said.

Inuyasha looked up at him.

"It may seem as though the winter has gone on forever, but it's really only the beginning. If we go around taking precious rations from humans, we will be condemning them to death."

"Yeah OK, I hear you. But what about the fact that they would kill you, your wife, me, the priestesses, just about everybody here, if they got the chance? If they knew who we were?"

"Some of them might. But I believe," Miroku answered, sinking to the ground to sit beside him, "that most of those people are desperate and deceived. Maybe even stupid. But that's not enough to condemn them."

Inuyasha sighed. "Listen Miroku, have you seen her before? Ayame, I mean."

"Yes."

"When?"

"Not long ago, a couple of days, I think. She pointed us toward you."

Inuyasha stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"As I can be. There is no doubt. We would not have crossed your path if not for Ayame-sama."

Inuyasha exhaled a long, slow breath. "This is good news," he said.

"How's that?"

"It's better to have direction than to wander around the wild, blind."

"I agree," Sango said. She was standing beside them. She lowered herself to the ground to sit on the other side of Inuyasha.

"I don't know what exactly Ayame is now," Inuyasha went on, "except that she is dead. I don't know what happened to her, though I have some suspicions about that. But if she really brought the two of you to me, then I think we can assume that she is trying to help us."

"Yes, and if she is a spirit from another plane," Miroku added, "it is very possible that she has access to information that we do not."

"I think she is trying to lead us to Kagome-chan, or to Shippou-chan," Sango said.

Inuyasha had to close his eyes, to endure the hitch in his chest he always felt when he heard Kagome's name.

"We can't steal what we need," Inuyasha said, "but we have to do what we can, all we can. We're responsible for these humans now. We have to keep them alive."

"I agree. We, Sango and I, owe Momiji and Kyotou our lives. But, I'm a little surprised at you, Inuyasha."

"What do you mean?"

"You can't deny that these humans, including Sango and myself, slow you down. Considering the circumstances, I'm a little surprised you don't run off on your own to find Kagome."

Closing his eyes again, Inuyasha shook his head.

"That's what I would have done, before. I can't do things that way anymore."

The three of them fell silent. On either side of him, Inuyasha could feel them staring at him. He stood in a sudden movement and, grabbing their hands, pulled them up.

"We have to keep pressing on," he said. "Are you ready?"

Sango squeezed his hand.

"I am ready."

"I am ready," Miroku whispered.

"I am ready," Inuyasha brought their heads towards him, to lean against his own temples. "I am ready."

The others had meanwhile gathered around the fire to take their breakfast. They fell silent and looked at the three persons that had become the undisputable center of their lives, the masters of their destinies. Momiji remembered living by the sea, enduring the interminable rains and the lashes of despair, and for the first time in months she wore a genuine smile.

"Shippou! Stop!" Kagura cried.

She finally caught up with him, pulling his haori and almost yanking him off his feet. Already, feathers had sprouted on his shoulders. He spun around, his eyes wild.

"Lemme go!" he almost screamed.

"Damnit, snap out of it! Taroumaru saw Inuyasha weeks ago. There's no telling where he is now!"

Shippou blinked at her, uncomprehending. "But…I…"

Kagura grabbed his shoulders. "I know, alright? I get it. But you have to calm down."

Shippou shook his head. He turned to the direction Taroumaru had pointed. He turned back to Kagura. Taroumaru meanwhile had emerged from tent and stood watching them.

"Kagura," Shippou said. "I have to get back to them."

Kagura's voice was stern and her hands still on him. "Look around. Look!"

Shippou turned his head back and forth to look at the surrounding army. The women, children, and elderly were in a camp in the center, and most of the men were taking advantage of the break in fighting to sleep, drink, and gamble. They were mixed in with the wolf demons.

"These people depend on us," she said. "Don't forget, _you_ were the one who persuaded them to fight with you. And you're going to run off now because there's something you want more somewhere else?"

Shippou gaped at her. He tried several times to speak, but at last he hung his head, his face betraying an old pain.

"Shippou-sama!"

They looked up and saw Norio walking towards them, his narrow face and sharp features grim, even severe. His black hair, caught behind his neck with a metal clasp, lifted in the wind.

"I think something is wrong," he said in a quiet voice, when he was closer.

"What do you mean?" Kagura asked him.

"I sent scouts out this morning," he said. "A few have not returned. They should have by now. They were not supposed to go far."

"Which way did they go?" Shippou asked.

"They were the ones I sent north."

Shippou chewed his lower lip.

"OK," he said. "I'll go look for them. Kagura, stay here with the armies."

"Shippou-sama, if those men were killed or captured by a lurking enemy, you may be going into a trap. You should not go alone."

Shippou shook his head. "There's no good in risking more men."

"I'll go with you," Kagura said.

"No, I want you to be here with the armies."

"I agree with Norio-san," she insisted. "I don't think you should go alone."

Shippou thought, chewing his lip again. "I guess I can take some of the wolf demons with me. Listen, just in case, if I don't come back—

"No," Kagura shook her head, laughing a little. "No, no. Not an option."

Shippou was about to respond, when he was cut off by a shocking detonation that rattled the very ground. The three of them struggled to keep their balance. Around them, people began to shout.

"What was that?" Kagura exclaimed, looking around.

"I don't know," Shippou, without thinking, took her hand.

From somewhere in the camp, they heard the first cries of alarms rising above the general din. The screaming spread, and soon they could see people running away from the disturbance and towards the river.

"Oh no. Heaven help us."

Shippou looked at Norio sharply. His face had drained of color and Shippou followed his eyes and saw that from the north the noon was blotted out. A cloud of dust spread southwards, overtaking the army. Shippou heard more and more people scream in terror. Some cried out in agony.

Something grabbed Shippou's coat and yanked him around. He found himself face to face with a wolf demon he only barely recognized.

"It's a surprise attack!" the demon shouted. "You better get these humans out of here, while you can."

Kagura bolted for the tent.

"Norio-san," Shippou addressed his captain. "Can we mount a counter-attack?"

The warrior shook his head. "They have every advantage. We're not ready. They're coming from the high ground, and pushing us against the river. If we don't get out of here, it will be a blood bath."

Shippou stomped his feet and cursed. "Where in the hell did they come from?"

"I really don't know," Norio answered.

Kagura returned, holding her weapon, with Taroumaru in tow.

"Get as many people out as you can," Shippou told Norio. "Here, take Taroumaru with you for help. Get them across the river!"

"What about you?" Taroumaru asked.

"We're gonna try to hold them off. Go!"

Norio bowed smartly and pulled Taroumaru away, speaking and gesturing in great haste.

Shippou looked up at the northern mountain slopes. The Tsuchigumo were like ink spilled on the hillsides. The black mass of them had almost reached the valley. Shippou looked around and saw the house leaders striving to order their people toward the river. The wolf demons, however, stomped their feet and beat their chests, and showed no sign of fleeing.

"Not much strategy this time," Shippou raised his voice over the commotion of screams and battle cries. "Just kill as many as you can."

"Got it," Kagura answered. She lifted herself in the air, carrying her deadly staff above her head.

"Wait, Kagura," Shippou reached out to her. "This could be the last time I see you."

"What?" she turned to him. "What are you babbling about?"

He stared at her, unable to bring the words up from the cellar in his mind.

"You better get going," she said to him, moving away again. "Or I'll get them all and there won't be any left for you."

Shippou swore under his breath, then took off running toward the hills. As he ran he spread out his arms. The wind lifted him and his talons left the ground.

Kouga was the first one to sense what was waiting for them. On the wind he caught the scent of dust and blood. His sharps ears began to pick up the cries of battle and the moans and sighs of the dying.

_Damnit, _he thought,_ what am I going to do with these women?_

He did not have long to think on it. Within minutes they burst into a scene of chaos and carnage. They came out of the forested hills to a flat valley with a wide river dividing it. On the northern shore humans were fleeing in terror, taking their chances in the muddy river to escape a torrent of spider monsters that poured out of the northern hills. He saw behind them men fighting the monsters to aid the escape of their woman and children. He knew they were Shippou's men.

"Holy shit," Hakkaku whispered as they came to a halt.

Kouga looked around and could only just make out some of his own kinsmen, fighting the Tsuchigumo in the hills.

"This is a disaster," Ginta exclaimed. "Where did all those damned demons come from?"

The girls, of course, were terrified.

"We have to get away!" Yuka shouted in his ear, making him wince.

"What do we do, Kouga-kun?" Higurashi asked him, still clinging to Ginta's back.

Kouga turned around. To the south, the valley rose into more hills, blanketed with dark firs.

"There!" he shouted, pointing up into the low mountains.

Ginta and Hakkaku looked up.

"Do you see that bit of grey rock?"

"Yes," they both answered.

"I don't see anything," Yuka protested.

"Of course you don't," he replied. "You're just a human. But I know there's a large cave up there. I've used it before. What's more, it winds down into the hills and opens up again in another valley, so if worse comes to worse, you won't be trapped."

"What do you mean?" Higurashi asked in alarm.

"We're taking the four of you there right now."

"You're going to leave us?"

"I have to come back to help as many of my kinsman survive as I can. I can't do that carrying around a bunch of human women. I can't take you across the river."

"But—

"Come on," he ordered the other wolf demons. "Let's go before any of those vermin over there see us and get wise."

Kouga ran so fast that the wind whistled in Yuka's ears and she clenched her teeth to keep in the screams. It took the wolf demons less than three minutes to get to the mouth of the cave, where they unceremoniously dumped the women off their backs and took off running again, before Higurashi and the others could say anything to them.

When they returned, many humans had made it across the river, though, by the looks of it, many more had not. Kouga could see their bodies on the opposite bank, and floating in the water, and the Tsuchigumo continued crossing the river, their numbers unabated.

"Alright men," he said, his eyes grim. "To war."

"To war!" they shouted.

Kouga leaped over the fleeing humans and cut down Tsuchigumo before they even knew to look up, slashing their necks and sending their heads bobbing down the river like grotesque apples. On land, once he was sure he was clear of all humans, he stormed through their ranks like a cyclone of swords, a storm that sent blood and black limbs flying in all directions. He heard more than one wolf demon voice rise above the fray in triumph.

"It's Kouga!" they shouted. "Kouga has come!"

He paused when he saw a wolf demon he knew well, a close kinsmen he had left in charge.

"What happened here?" Kouga demanded.

The wolf demon wiped blood from the side of his face, and Kouga saw that he was now missing an ear, but he seemed to take no notice. He looked around, squinting.

"We were doing well until this morning," he shouted above the fray, "but a surprise attack pinned us against the river. Those humans took heavy losses. They don't smell like anything Kouga. You can't sense them!"

"Yeah, I noticed."

They could not continue talking. It seemed that they were standing on a beach, and they were only an inch tall, trying to fight off the sand.

"You know that this direction leads right to that commotion you saw the other day?" Nobunaga questioned him.

"I know it," Inuyasha answered him.

They were traveling a good pace, as fast as the slowest among them could move, making their way through the barren pine forests that blanketed the hills. It was not yet midday, but the sky was darkened.

"That's all well and good for us, Inuyasha-sama," Nobunaga continued, "but what about the women?"

"I know," Inuyasha waved him off impatiently. "We'll just have to protect them."

"But—

"Stop worrying, Nobunaga."

"I can't. It's in my nature. And since when were you so carefree?"

"I'm not, but there's no use in you worrying about it."

"When do you think we'll get there?"

"Soon," Inuyasha answered. "These hills are going to sink into a valley. I think it has a river in it. That's where the trouble is."

Inuyasha and Nobunaga were in front of the company, almost running. Miroku and Sango were not far behind, and it pained Inuyasha to hear their strained breathing. From all they had told him about the past six months, it was no wonder that they were weaker. If Miroku and Sango had been weakened by injury, exertion, and privation, Inuyasha feared the other humans were hanging on the edge of life. He was especially worried about Nazuna, who had never been strong to begin with and had already sickened once.

_I can't take them into battle._

Despite what he said to Nobunaga, he did not put this worry from his mind.

The trees thinned and as they emerged from the forest he could see the exact location of the battle. Though the others only saw some movement and a great deal of dust, Inuyasha could see that there were humans and spider demons engaged in combat, which the humans were mostly losing. Mixed among them he could make out wolf demons.

"Wolf demons?" Miroku asked. "I wonder if they are related to Kouga?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha answered. "There are a lot of wolf demon tribes out there."

He peered into the clamor and dust.

"Wait," he said sharply. "That's him."

"What?"

"There," Inuyasha pointed. "You see that dust cloud, moving across to the east?"

"Yes, I think so," Sango murmured, shading her eyes.

"That's Kouga."

Sango gasped. "Are you sure?"

"Oh yeah, that's him alright. I can almost smell him from here."

"What do we do?"

Inuyasha looked around, then back towards the fighting.

"I know what I have to do," he said at last. "I have to go there. But I can't take the rest of you."

"I can fight," Nobunaga responded.

"So can I," Kyotou said.

"Yeah, maybe, but someone has to stay with the others."

"What do you mean?" Sango demanded. "You intend to leave us behind?"

"I think not," Miroku exclaimed.

The others began to clamor in agreement.

"We've come this far together," Botan said.

"It's not safe here," Nazuna said. "Those monsters are everywhere. Sango and Miroku were attacked two days ago."

"I'm telling you," Nobunaga insisted. "I can fight with you!"

"Enough!" Inuyasha yelled.

The rest stopped and stared at him in amazement. He pointed to the fighting.

"People are dying over there. I don't have time for this shit. I _can't _take you with me. Yes, it's dangerous to separate, but it's a hell of a lot worse over there!"

They looked around at each other, but said nothing.

"Now, as you said before, I'm leading this little company," he continued. "You have your orders and—

He stopped and fell silent. He sniffed the air.

"Inuyasha?" Miroku took a step toward him. "What is it?"

Inuyasha held up one hand, and continued smelling the air.

"I thought I—

He stopped again.

After a few moments, he spoke. "I thought I caught a familiar scent. It's coming from those hills." He pointed to the southwest.

"What is it?" Sango asked him.

"I'm not sure who or what it is," he said, "but I'm sure I know it."

"Then we should go that way."

"But—

"There are only so many scents that you would recognize Inuyasha," she said. "We have to find it out. Maybe there's somewhere you can stash us."

Inuyasha ignored her slightly bitter tone. He hesitated and looked back toward the river, then he shook his head.

"Alright, but we have to move fast."

In order to go in that direction, they had to come down out of the hills, cut through a corner of the valley, and ascend again into rocky knolls to the south. Inuyasha pushed the rest of them as much as he was willing, but the going was slow, and it was early afternoon before they reached the foot of the low mountains. Now the scent was clear, but he could still not name it.

"There's a cave up there," he said.

He turned and looked at the humans. Several of them were red-faced and panting, despite the frosty air.

"I want the rest of you to stay here," he told them. "It will only take me a few minutes to go up and look."

He moved to leap away immediately, but Miroku grabbed his sleeve.

"Wait, Inuyasha," he said. "Take me with you."

"What the hell for?"

"Just in case."

"In case of what? There's nothing in that cave that I can't handle. And if there were, you'd be no help."

Miroku sighed and shook his head.

"Why do you argue with me, Inuyasha?" he asked. "Is it out of some obscure principle?"

Inuyasha glared at him and muttered under his breath.

"Fine," he said, kneeling. "Let's go."

"Look after the others," Miroku said to Sango, climbing on Inuyasha's back.

She nodded.

They left so quickly that the others could scarce see it. Miroku held the staff across Inuyasha's chest and the rings jingled as Inuyasha ran up the side of the hills, dodging trees and shrubs and leaping from rock to rock.

"I can't say I missed this sort of thing!" Miroku shouted over the freezing wind, trying to keep Inuyasha's hair out of his face.

Inuyasha grunted.

Within a minute or two, Inuyasha came to a sudden stop on a ledge. Miroku clambered off his back and saw a small cave mouth opening up onto the ledge.

"I'll go in first," Inuyasha said.

Miroku followed Inuyasha into the cave. The ceiling was so low that they had to stoop, and they were obliged to walk single file. After only a few moments in the dim light, Miroku was sure he could hear voices. It sounded like women talking.

Inuyasha stopped and sniffed the air.

"There are three—no, four, woman ahead. Humans."

"That's it?" Miroku whispered. "Why would they be here alone?"

"Who's there?" a voice cried out into the darkness.

Inuyasha was still for a moment, then he nudged Miroku.

"You go first," he whispered.

Miroku smirked. "Told you so."

"Just go the hell on."

"Who's there?" the voice asked again. "Don't come any closer!"

"It is alright," Miroku called out. "We're not here to hurt you."

"Are you human or demon?" the woman asked.

"I am human."

He heard them whispering.

"Come closer then," another one said. "Into the light."

Miroku took slow steps further down into the cave, until he walked into the faint light of a small fire. He was not at all prepared for what he found. They _were_ human women, but they were dressed in furs and leather from their chins to their toes, sort of similar to…

_Wolf demons,_ he thought to himself.

Three of them were very close in age, one with rather long, black hair that was twisted into thick ropes that hung behind her ears. The fourth looked older, and wiser, and somewhat familiar. From behind him, he heard Inuyasha's sharp intake of breath.

The girls caught sight of him.

"Hey!" the one with the long hair shouted. "Who is that? You didn't say anyone was with you!"

"He's a friend," Miroku said quickly, holding up the palm of his hands and trying to look especially monkish.

"Oh my god," the older woman gasped, and covered her mouth.

"Higurashi?" the girl turned to her.

"Higurashi?" Miroku echoed the name.

Inuyasha pushed past him.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed.

"Oh, it _is_ you!" the older one cried. She ran to Inuyasha and threw her arms around him. "Thank the stars above! Inuyasha!"

"Umm…" was all Miroku could manage.

Inuyasha pulled the woman away and, holding her head, studied her face.

"How did you get here?" he demanded. "This isn't possible!"

"But it is!" she said. "A demon brought us here."

"A demon?" Miroku interrupted.

"Yes! I think he was working for Naraku!"

"Naraku?" both Inuyasha and Miroku exclaimed.

"Yes!" the woman called Higurashi said. Then she sighed, trying to calm herself. "It's a long story."

Inuyasha scratched his head. "Everything is a long story these days."

"Inuyasha," she looked into his eyes intently. "Where is Kagome?"

It seemed to Miroku that Inuyasha's face was suddenly drawn and weary.

"I don't know," he answered. "I'm sorry."

The woman hung her head and slumped her shoulders.

"Don't you worry," Inuyasha said to her. "I will get Kagome back, I promise."

Higurashi turned back to him and smiled wryly.

"Believe me when I say that I know for certain you will."

"So…" Miroku began, looking back and forth between the two. "You know each other? And you know Kagome."

"Miroku," Inuyasha said, "this is Kagome's mother."

For one of the few occasions in his life, Miroku was struck speechless. He could only stare at the woman with his mouth hanging open.

"Listen," Inuyasha said to them. "I—

He stopped, and looked closer at the younger girls. "Hey, wait a minute. I know you, too."

"And I remember you," the long-haired girl said. Miroku thought her voice harsh and her eyes hard. "You're not what you seemed to be, I can see that now."

"Uh…well…actually…"

"You're a demon," she said simply.

"Half-demon, to tell the truth."

"Whatever," she waved that aside. "Either way, it explains a lot. A lot."

"Indeed," another girl, one with short, straight hair, murmured.

"I'm sure you all have a lot to talk about," Miroku began, still staring at them a little wild-eyed. "But the others are waiting."

"Right. Stay here, Miroku. I'm going to go get them."

"I don't think they can all climb up this mountain, at least not very fast."

"I'm going to carry them up, stupid."

"One by one?"

"More or less," Inuyasha called back as he walked out of the cave. "Wait here."

It seemed to take hours to get everyone up into the cave, and all the while Inuyasha could hear the sounds of fighting and dying.

_How much longer can that go on?_

When everyone was at last sitting around the fire he bid them one abrupt goodbye and was gone before they could say anything to stop him. Kyotou probably and Nobunaga certainly would have insisted on going with him, and he thought it best that they stay behind. With that many people hiding, some of them needed to know how to use a sword.

Inuyasha cleared the slope in one leap and tore across the valley toward the river, still obsessing in his mind how Higurashi came to be here and why.

_Just hope I'll have the chance to find out._

The sun was already getting lower. Night came early this time of year, and even earlier in the hill country. On his way, he was gratified to see not a few humans, refugees making their way in groups to the south. They were not being pursued. It seemed that the fighters had managed to hold the Tsuchigumo away from the river. As he got closer, he saw human men and wolf demons forming a spearhead that aimed north. However, he could see even in this dim light that the northern slopes were still covered in the black monsters. The comforting weight of Tessaiga hung at his hip.

"To battle," he murmured.

Inuyasha took to the sky. He leapt over the heads of the humans and wolf demons, who did not even know he was there. Coming down nearer the foot of the hills, Inuyasha drew his sword and, in one stroke, lit the gray afternoon with searing lightening. The energy left his heart, his hands, and his sword, and cleared a path, acres wide and nearly half a mile long, straight into the mountains. Tsuchigumo disintegrated, chunks of sod and grass flew up into the air, and trees split by the score. The noise was awful.

It was definitely enough to get everyone's attention. A towering silence hung in the air. The Tsuchigumo seemed shocked into sanity. Those that were not incinerated stood up straight and stared with glittering eyes and gaping maws, uncomprehending. For a moment that seemed to drag on forever, no one moved.

But of course it was not forever. The Tsuchigumo screamed in hateful defiance and came rushing in, like black water, to fill the gaps in their ranks. Behind Inuyasha, the fighting resumed, as the men and wolf demons tried to exterminate the Tsuchigumo that had been lucky enough to not be in front of Inuyasha.

"That's OK," Inuyasha said, his expression grim.

He raised his sword again as the monsters resumed their plunge down the slopes.

"I can do this all night."

Shippou fought off the furtive flutters of the edge of panic. He had killed many, many Tsuchigumo, but it did not seem to make a difference. All around him he heard and smelled humans dying. The wolf demons were faring better of course, but they were not without their own losses. Kouga's return had been fortuitous, but that brought to Shippou's mind another problem.

What would Kouga do when he saw Kagura?

Shippou had come to take the 'new' Kagura for granted, but he reminded himself that Kouga had never met the 'new' Kagura. To him, Kagura was still a mortal enemy. And speaking of Kagura…

Where the hell was she?

It seemed hours since he had seen her, an alarming situation considering he spent most of that time in the air, picking up Tsuchigumo and flinging them against the rocks.

_This will never end. It will just go on and on like this forever. This is hell._

These things ran on a loop through his mind even as he fought. Shippou rode a current of air that rolled off the hills into the valley, soaring low over the heads of his allies and enemies, carefully choosing which ones to tear with his talons. His metallic cries pierced the air, which was growing darker with each minute.

He had to find Kagura. He did not doubt that she could take care of herself, but it had been too long. He could not wait anymore. He beat his wings to lift higher, thinking that flying seemed so much more natural now than walking.

He did not see Kagura, but his eyes caught a strange motion and he saw Norio being swarmed under. Shippou lost no time in rushing to the scene and his talons and beak frightened the monsters away long enough for Norio to get to his feet. The man looked up at him, but his eyes had an alarming vacancy and his face was chalk white. Then Shippou saw the blood. Norio's left arm was mangled and shapeless.

Shippou resumed his normal shape and rushed to his side. For a moment, he was disoriented, being so close to the ground.

"What happened?" he shouted.

Norio's mouth wagged at him, but nothing came out.

"I have to get you out of here," Shippou said, mostly to himself. "I'm going to carry you out, OK?"

Not waiting for an answer, Shippou stood and held out his arms, and was bringing himself up on the wind in minutes. He thought to himself how had only ever carried Kagura and that was only once. Anything else he had purposefully impaled, and he worried that he would be unable to carry his friend without killing him.

As it turned out, he would not get the chance to try.

Shippou was about six feet off the ground when he felt an odd, unfamiliar resistance to his power of flight. Something was pulling him down. He struggled harder to rise, then he understood. Tsuchigumo were gathered around, and now he could see the white, sticky ropes that they cast over him like fishing nets. The monsters, or at least a few of them, were spitting out the thin, but unbreakable, strands.

_This is new,_ he thought, before he hit the ground.

Grasping, bony hands clawed at him as he struggled to pull off the webbing. One hand gripped his shoulder and yanked him over onto his back and he found himself staring into a dark face, with clusters of glittering eyes and a slobbering maw of a mouth. He managed to free his left arm and made a clumsy swing at the demon's head, but it anticipated the move and threw its head back, grabbing the arm and twisting it. Pain shot to his shoulder and Shippou cried out.

An urgent panic grew in his mind. There were so many, he had to get away or he would be covered in them, and so would Norio. His ears filled with the sound of his pumping heart and rushing blood, drowning out the din of battle.

All the bony hands were gone, and when he looked around he saw that there were no Tsuchigumo nearer than fifteen feet. He was still held down by the webbing. A strong burst of foxfire, however, melted it away. Shippou got to his feet and stumbled toward Norio, but a terrific force landed with a boom on the ground between them. Something large moved again up in the air and Shippou could hear the air whistling as it swung around again. Uncomprehending, moving only on instinct, he dodged the next hammer fall, tumbling head over heels. A long shadow covered him and he looked up at the towering figure of a black ogre. Its eyes were red and its long, curved fangs seemed impossible for its mouth. He was nine, maybe ten, feet tall, and he held a club that was bigger than Shippou.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Shippou yelled at him.

The monster only grinned, an expression of cruelty and malice. To Shippou's dismay, he realized that the demon was actually singing!

_The stupid little fox brat_

_Thinks he so fast!_

_Better run, better run_

_Faster than my club! _

_All the little kits_

_With their dumb toy tricks_

_Better run, better run_

_Outrun my club!_

Every time he said _club_, the creature swung his weapon again. Shippou dodged the blows and looked past the ogre. He saw that the injured Norio was lying crumpled on the ground now.

"Why are you here?" he shouted, hoping to distract the giant from using his weapon long enough to catch his breath.

The demon did not answer, but opened his mouth wide, then wider, then impossibly wide. To his horror, Shippou saw something coming through the ogre's throat. A dozen or more Tsuchigumo came pouring out, spilling on the ground like shiny black pebbles and, within seconds, were up and running, joining their kindred.

"That's really disgusting, you know that?" Shippou said, trying to mimic Inuyasha's bravado.

He dodged another fall of the weapon, and the monster kept singing his morbid song.

_Bring me the black pans_

_And a hot water bath _

_Gonna mince, gonna scald_

_The baby's gonna bawl! _

_Stoke the cooking fires_

_Heat up the fryers_

_Better run, better run_

_Outrun my club!_

Shippou was tired. He had been fighting all day and was suffering from small but numerous wounds. One Tsuchigumo had even bitten him, and he suspected that it was effecting him; his head felt numb and his stomach sloshed around in his insides. When another blow came roaring down, Shippou only _mostly_ dodge it. It glanced off the side of his head and sent him reeling and sprawling on the ground, blood oozing from his ears. He clung to the ground, feeling as though he would fall off the face of the earth.

The heavy steps of the ogre shook the ground as he came closer to him.

_This is it,_ he thought. _It's over._ _I'm not strong enough._

He was so tired he hardly cared, except…except…

"Kagura," he croaked, trying to lift one hand.

Darkness took him and he knew no more.

"Have you seen Shippou?"

It sounded like a woman's voice, which was enough to get Kouga's attention. What the hell would a woman be doing in the middle of this?

Despite all the shocks he had received in the last week, none had prepared him for what he saw when he turned around.

For a second, he did not recognize her. Two things were immediately clear: she was a demon, and she was fighting against, not for, the Tsuchigumo. She was covered in their black-green blood. She was tall and wore black boots up to her knees, with black hakama tucked into them. Several layers of short, red kimonos were tied around her, topped with a black haori. Her hair was long and wavy and flew in all directions.

It was the eyes that did it, eyes that bored into him like scalding rubies.

"Son of a bitch!"

Not waiting one second, he threw all his strength into a devastating punch. Kagura, however, dodged him easily and his fist hit only sod.

"I don't have time for this, Kouga," she warned him. "Have you seen Shippou or not?"

"You don't need to worry about him," he growled at her. "You got me."

"Damn it, you always were a bloody fool. Don't you—

"Kagura-sama!" a man shouted, grabbing her haori.

Kagura turned quickly. "What is it?"

"All the women, children, and old people, what's left of them, are across the river and into the hills to the south," he told her.

"Good! Get the rest of the men across the water if you can. Retreat to higher ground!"

"Yes!"

He turned to leave, but Kagura held on to him.

"Wait! Have you seen Shippou?"

The man shook his head. "No, my lady."

She released him. "Go! But don't take any unnecessary risks, Fukushima. Just get the hell out of here!"

He nodded and hurried away.

Kouga watched this exchange, astounded.

"The Motherless," he said, staring at her.

"What?"

"You're the other captain!"

"I'm sure this is all very confusing and fascinating," she said. "But I need to know if you've seen Shippou."

He shook his head, his eyes still wide.

"Damn!" she lifted herself in the air as if it were water she could swim through. "Keep your eye out for him!"

She turned to leave, but she was only a few feet from the ground when a gust of wind burst through the valley and knocked them both onto their backs. The air was oddly charged; Kouga noticed the hair on his arms standing up.

"What the hell was that?" she shouted, getting to her feet.

"I don't know. It came from over there."

He pointed toward the northern slopes, where the Tsuchigumo had been pouring out all day.

Something, some kind of power, grew in the air, like a drawn coil, and a terrific wind was released again. This time they were looking in the right direction to see the brassy electricity tear up into the hills like lightning, born of dirt instead of clouds.

"I know what that is," she whispered.

"So do I," he said. "And I can't believe it."

Kagura started in that direction, but he grabbed her sleeve.

"We have a lot to discuss," he told her, "at some length, if you know what I mean."

"Fine," she said, jerking her arm away. "But do you mind if we try to live until then?"

In the next instant she was flying away. Kouga swore under his breath and followed her.

"I can't _believe _this," he muttered to himself. "What next?"

He and Kagura caught up to Inuyasha at about the same time. Even in the middle of the destruction and confusion, Kouga almost laughed at the sight of him, swinging his gigantic sword like a kid knocking down lilies in a garden.

Kagura shouted something that Kouga didn't catch and Inuyasha turned around, but his eyes found Kouga's face first. For a second, he stood stock still, gaping at him.

"So, you finally showed up, you mangy mutt!" Kouga shouted at him, kicking a few piles of dead spider demons aside to get to him.

Inuyasha stared at him, then, much to Kouga's surprise, he smiled. He reached out a hand and grabbed Kouga's shoulder.

"How's it going? Long time no see."

Kouga was beginning to feel overloaded with surprises.

"Is that all you have to say to me?" he demanded, shaking his fist.

"What did you expect?" Inuyasha shouted back. "Did you want me to recite love poetry?"

Kouga shook his head.

"Sorry," he said, "but I owe you this."

He punched Inuyasha square in the mouth. His heart was not wholly in it, so the blow only caused Inuyasha to stumble back a little.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"It'd take too long to explain," Kouga answered. "Believe me, you deserve it."

Kagura laughed. "He did that to me too, but at least I dodged it, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha glanced at her and started to say something to Kouga again, but then he stopped short and grabbed her coat, his eyes somewhat protruding from his head.

"Whaaa…?"

"Yo, Inuyasha!" she said. "You've been well, I hope."

"Wha…what the…how did you…?"

"Yes, yes, riveting," she said. "But I don't have time. Have you seen Shippou?"

"Shippou?" he shouted. "What the hell do you mean? Is he here?"

"Damn," she muttered. "I guess that's a 'no'."

She tore away from him, turning away.

"Hey! Wait!"

"I can't! I have to find him!"

She was gone. Inuyasha almost chased after her, but Kouga rapped him on the temple with his knuckles.

"Pay attention!" he yelled at him. "Look!"

Inuyasha's eyes followed his pointing hand to the north, where the monsters were making gains again.

"Keep on 'em!" Kouga shouted. "You're giving these people their best chance to get away."

Kouga ran in the direction Kagura had gone, but he knew Inuyasha had listened to him because, even as he ran, he could feel the energy of the Tessaiga sizzling the air.

Kagura flew low over the fighting. She was relieved to see that few humans remained on this side of the river. It was mostly wolf demons who remained. Still, the battle spread over a fair amount of land, some of which was dotted with trees. The dust and confusion blurred everything together. All the Tsuchigumo looked the same; all the wolf demons looked the same. Kagura moved up and down the length of the field, keeping her eyes peeled for flaming red hair.

_What if I don't find him? What if he washed away in the river?_

_What if I do find him, and he's dead?_

A cold knot of fear wrapped around her insides. Shippou could not be dead. It was unthinkable. It was—

At last she caught sight of him, sprawled face down on the ground. A movement off to the side caught her eye. It was a shape so large she almost believed that it was a moving tree. A black ogre lumbered toward Shippou, swinging a club that may as well have been a tree. Kagura managed to get to the ground and lift her weapon above her head, letting it take the intended death blow. The ogre's crushing weight pressed down on the staff and she heard it creaking. Her bones rattled and she grit her teeth. The monster glared down at her through a maniacal grin.

Kagura released her muscles for a split second and swung her weapon around. The curved tip of the blade sank into the ogre's flesh like cutting a ripe peach. A wide, scarlet gash appeared across its belly and the blue and grey intestines peaked out. The ogre wailed and stumbled back, holding its wound with its free hand and turning around and around, spraying blood on the muddy grass.

"Get back!" she shouted. "I will let you go if you leave now! I will kill you if you touch him!"

The ogre's wail trailed away to a pathetic, dismayed moan. Then he turned on her again and she saw with a shock that he was still grinning. Then his mouthed opened wider, wider, and wider still. A black ooze started to pour forth, and Kagura thought he was in his death throws already. But the ooze took shape, and from the monster's gut there came at least a dozen Tsuchigumo, fully formed by the time they hit the ground.

"What?" was all she could manage before they were on her, tiny black hands clawing her everywhere and pulling her down.

She relieved some arms of their hands, but it did not help. Something else was on her, some kind of sticky rope. White strands of it came out of nowhere and covered her. Through it, and through the claws and hairy arms, she could see Kouga attacking the ogre. A terrific thud shook the ground, and she knew it was the monster landing on his back.

_Shippou! I have to get out of this!_

She struggled, pulled, and twisted, and finally freed herself of their hands. She tried to escape to the air, but the strings launched over her head like a net and pulled her down, not slowly, but all at once with a violent jerk. The impact with the ground knocked the wind out of her; she heard a loud, short crack, and felt an agonizing pain in her left leg. Gasping for breath, she could not put up any more fight. A hand grabbed her hair and yanked her head back.

In the next second the little demons scattered everywhere. Kouga's fist and feet were blurring in the air above her and she heard angry and outraged cries of pain.

She sat up, holding her throat and choking for air.

"Kouga!" she gasped. "Shippou!"

She looked around but did not see either one.

"He's fine," Kouga's voice came from somewhere. "He's just knocked out."

Kagura wrenched herself around to find him, but a searing pain gripped her leg again. She cried out but continued turning. Kouga was kneeling beside the young fox demon, studying his face and shaking his shoulders.

"He's coming around."

Kagura could see nothing from where she was, so she pulled herself in that direction, dragging her weight with her elbows.

Shippou groaned. "Kagura…"

"I'm here!" she cried. "I'm right here. Are you alright?"

He groaned again, but sat up, rubbing his head. "I think so. You?"

"I'm fine," she answered.

"Did you know that your leg is broken?" Kouga asked her in an acidic tone.

"What?" Shippou got to his feet, but he stumbled and bowed over, holding his head.

"Steady there, kid," Kouga held his elbow.

Shippou looked around. For the first time, he noticed something unusual to the west. Through the dust and trees he could only make out an eerie light that flashed again and again near the hills.

"What is that?"

Kouga hesitated. "It's…it's Inuyasha."

Kagura was looking up in his face and saw a light come into his eyes, a hope, a need that was almost dreadful.

"What?" Shippou gasped for breath.

Kagura thought he was about to speed away, but he stopped, stood still for a moment, then he turned back to her.

"Can you move?" he asked her. "Can you get out of here?"

"I can still fly," she said. "I think."

He helped her to her feet. She could not put any weight on the injured leg.

"I want you to get across the river," he told her. "The people…we need to get them to safety."

"Where would that be?" she asked.

"There are caves," Kouga injected. "To the south."

"Caves?" Shippou turned to him. "We still have a lot of people."

"The caves are big," Kouga said. "It's more like a bunch of tunnels that go back into the mountains. I think they'll fit."

"Good. Kagura, I want you to go with Kouga and get the people to those caves."

She nodded. "You're going to Inuyasha."

It was not a question.

"Yes. Here, Kouga."

Shippou went a few feet away where Kagura saw that Norio was lying on the ground.

"Take this man with you," he said. "He's still breathing. I can't leave him behind."

Kouga grunted. "Fine," he said. "The man I'll take, for your sake. But Kagura…"

Shippou stood inches from Kouga's face and looked him in the eye.

"I understand your feelings," he said. "But you have no idea what we've been through together. If Kagura doesn't make it to those caves, I'll hold you personally responsible."

Kouga bristled. "You're asking a lot, you little brat."

"Not just me, Kouga, but Kagome too."

"Kagome?" Kouga was startled.

"That's right. Kagome went through hell to keep Kagura alive and away from Naraku, so don't dishonor her sacrifice now."

Kagura watched this exchange holding her breath, but that seemed to put some resolve into Kouga. He glared at her, as Shippou put Norio into his arms and flew away, but once Kagura had retrieved her weapon, he motioned with his head.

"This way," he said shortly. "Let's go."

Inuyasha was getting tired. Thirty minutes or so had passed since Kouga and Kagura had run off, though he could think of nothing else except the fact that Shippou—

_spinning tops and acorns, grilled fish and summer dips in the river, potato chips and candy and noodles and big, green, frightened eyes—Shippou, little Shippou_

—was so near. If he could get his hands on the little fox brat, he could take him back to Miroku and Sango and it would almost be over.

Almost.

But he had to keep killing these demons. Between Kouga's men and Inuyasha, almost none of the Tsuchigumo even made it to the water, let alone across. Fewer and fewer where coming down the northern hills, until it was barely a trickle.

At last he returned the Tessaiga to its home, deciding that it was time to join the retreat. His arms and legs trembled with exhaustion, and he was disgusted by how weak he had become.

Even after all this time, he heard Kagome's voice in his head.

_It's no wonder! All you've been through!_

He shrugged her off and did not excuse himself.

A shadow passed between him and the sinking sun. It stretched across the field and for a moment covered him completely. Somewhat startled, Inuyasha looked up and saw some enormous, dark shape, gliding overhead and covering the twilight.

_Is that a dragon?_

No, it was a bird, a golden-brown falcon with wings that spanned at least twelve feet, tip to tip. As it beat its huge wings, the air fanned Inuyasha's face.

_What now?_ he thought.

The hawk circled him and let out a shrill, ear-piercing cry. It descended in an upsurge of cyclonic force that sent dust and leaves swirling around him and, before he knew what was happening, Inuyasha found himself rising in the air, watching the ground between his feet get smaller and smaller. The bird had his arms in its powerful feet.

"What do you want?" he yelled at it.

"Don't tell me you don't recognize me, Inuyasha," a voice came from the bird, though its beak did not move. "Even if I look different, I'm sure I pretty much smell the same."

The scent of a familiar fox demon came into his lungs and Inuyasha's heart wrenched in his chest even before his mind comprehended the truth.

"Shippou?" he whispered.

"Yeah. You looked tired. Thought I'd give you a ride to the caves."

"Caves?"

"That's where Kouga and Kagura are leading everybody."

"Oh," was all Inuyasha could think to say, and he was too tired anyway to shout above the rushing air.

He looked down and saw the column of humans marching south, flanked by the wolf demons. He could still see the carnage, littering the field on the north banks of the river, but Inuyasha could think of nothing but Shippou. From the corner of his eye a tiny tear flew away and was swallowed by the biting wind.

[End of Chapter 27]

[Next chapter: The Path]


	28. The Path

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Path**

_"I like them to talk nonsense. That's man's one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen." – Fyodor Dostoevsky_

"The Beloved has come."

Kagome looked up, surprised not just by the words, but by the voice. It sounded like Kikyou, but something about it was off—jarring, like a wrong word or note in a song you know by heart. The priestess appeared the same, and yet not. A hazy, fractured light surrounded her, and Kagome squinted, unable to make out the true edges of her. Even the room, which resembled the kitchen of the Hyouden, glimmered as if it were underwater. Kagome's first thought was that something was wrong with her. Perhaps she was lightheaded, and about to faint.

But no, she felt fine.

"Ki…Kikyou?"

Kikyou's shape moved through the air like a light passing through amber oil. She turned her head to look at someone else. It was Sesshoumaru. His expression was placid, as usual, but the grip of steel sternness was not there, and he appeared oddly soft and gentle. The effect was unsettling.

"To inquire what means _Kikyou_?" Kikyou asked him.

He turned to her slowly. "To believe that the Beloved refers to one of the Twelve. To think it may be the Wanderer."

Kagome's blood ran cold and she swallowed hard.

"You're not them," she whispered. "You're something else."

They looked at her.

"To know that you would come," a new voice, shockingly loud, came from behind her. "To have foreseen it."

Kagome spun around and found herself facing Inuyasha across a tiny, electrified space. One look into his flat, serene expression convinced her in an instant that it was not really him, but her heart soaked in tears anyway.

"What do you want?"

"You are the Beloved," he answered, as if that explained everything.

"How do I get back?" she asked.

"Back?" Kouga walked up to her and peered into her eyes, studying her.

"Yes," she stammered, pulling her eyes away. "To where I was before."

"Before?" Sango, dressed in her battle-ready gear, turned to Sesshoumaru.

"To remind you that the Beloved is still of Earth," he explained. "Her time is linear."

"Ah," Sango responded, her tone sad.

"To think that she is limited," Miroku stood next to her.

"To know that she _is_ the Beloved," Kouga insisted.

"To see that you have come with questions," Kagome saw the wind sorceress, Kagura, standing next to Sango. "To be willing to hear them, while you are here."

Kagome's heart pounded.

"Are you…am I in the presence of gods?" she whispered.

The group of them looked at each other, for some time. Kagome got the impression that they were speaking, but in some fashion she could not hear or understand.

"That word is sufficient enough," the young Shippou told her.

"What do you want of me?" she asked again.

Kikyou's brow furrowed in mild perplexity. "You are the Beloved."

"I don't know what that means."

Kikyou looked to Sesshoumaru. He turned to Kagome.

"It means what you are, and you are what it means."

Kagome tried not to betray her frustration. _This is what I get,_ she thought,_ for wanting to talk to gods._

Then a sudden thought occurred to her.

"Can I _not_ be the Beloved?" she asked.

They looked around at each other again.

"To not understand," Shippou admitted.

"Could I…abdicate…relinquish…_stop_ being the Beloved. Couldn't someone else do it?"

"Someone else?" Shippou turned to Kagura, frowning.

"To not understand," the demoness repeated.

"To see that the Beloved does not wish to be the Beloved," Sesshoumaru told them.

They all looked at him, then back at her. Kagome squirmed.

"Ah," Sango said after a moment, and once again she was sad.

Kikyou walked around the kitchen fire and stood in front of Kagome.

"To want is irrelevant," she said. "You are the Beloved. You are the Everlasting Light. You are the Commander. You are the Visitor. You are of Earth. You are of Us."

Kagome would never be able to explain why, but for a moment a deep sadness, an unfathomable ocean of loss and regret swelled within her.

_What is it? What am I feeling?_

She saw a fleeting image of a girl running through a spring forest. Her white hair flew out behind her and her bare feet flashed in the dappled sunlight.

"Why?" she asked. "What right have you to decide so many destinies? To plan it all out, like a director of a play?"

"Play?" Kagura repeated.

"What is 'right'?" Shippou demanded.

"Is it this?" Sesshoumaru asked.

The room changed without warning. The kitchen was gone. The oppressive darkness seemed total until Kagome's eyes adjusted to the faint light. Only the pseudo-Shippou stood with her in the gloom, looking at her with expectation. Wet walls of stone surrounded them on all sides, arching up high above their heads. They were in a cave. Bones littered the floor of the cave—decaying limbs and rib cages, and skulls with clumps of hair still matted to them. The reek of dried blood and rotting flesh hit her at the same moment.

"What is this?" she cried, turning her back on it. "Why have you done this?"

"Done?" Shippou asked. "To have done nothing. To show you the truth."

The truth revealed itself to Kagome as though she were reading it on a page, line by the line, words lifting up to her like fog from a dark lake. The bodies were all women, young women. This is where the Tsuchigumo had been bred and born, the spider-like demons that Tamotsu had told her about. He had also told her the rumor of women taken by spider demons before the Rains. She remembered Rin mentioning their empty lair.

She grit her teeth, and tried to breathe through her nose to keep from vomiting.

"The Tsuchigumo," she mumbled. "They're half-demons, aren't they?"

No one answered, but they did not need to.

"Why are you showing me this?" Kagome demanded, her face streaming. "Do you hate me that much?"

"To show you the truth," Shippou insisted. "To guess that it is the same as 'right'."

"Well it isn't!" she shouted at him.

They returned to the kitchen. By this time, Kagome wept openly.

Sesshoumaru stood in front of her now, pressing his slender fingers against his chest.

"To not be of this body," he said. "To not be of Earth. To not exist in your linear time. To see all time. To know that your enemy does this. To know that he does other things, things you may stop, in your time. To know that only you can be the Beloved."

Still sobbing, Kagome could barely raise her head and nod.

"To return her to her own time and place?" Kikyou suggested.

"To agree," Sesshoumaru said.

"Wait!" Kagome cried. "What about Kikyou?"

"Kikyou again?" Kikyou wondered.

"She is like me," Kagome explained. "She is a priestess. We shared a soul."

"To know for certain now that the Beloved refers to the Wanderer," Sesshoumaru said.

The others nodded.

"The Wanderer?" Kagome asked.

"The Reborn."

"Yes, that's her!" Kagome exclaimed.

"What of her?"

"Did you give her life back to her? Why? Is it permanent?"

Kouga approached her, standing very close, his blue eyes clear as water.

"To know that you know that the Wanderer is not the Beloved, and the Beloved is not the Wanderer."

Kagome sighed and wiped her wet cheeks.

"I guess that's your way of telling me it's none of my concern."

"As you say, Beloved," he replied. "But to suggest that she _is _restored as one of Earth. Nothing of Earth is _permanent._"

"I think I have the right to ask something of you."

"To not disagree. To tell you it is up to us to grant it."

"Kikyou…ah, the Wanderer, deserves some kind of answer. She should talk to you, as I have."

"You judge this to be right?" Kouga asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"So be it," Sesshoumaru said. "Touch her hand as soon as you see her."

"Will I see you again?"

"You are the Beloved," Kouga shrugged.

Kagome was still standing in the kitchen, but the glimmer cast was gone. By contrast the air seemed hard and apathetic now.

"Oh thank heavens!" Kikyou cried, getting to her feet. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Are you really Kikyou?" Kagome asked her.

"What? What do you mean? Of course I am." She looked closer at Kagome's face. "Are you hurt? Why have you been crying?"

"It will be alright," Kagome said.

Without waiting for a response, she took Kikyou's hand. In the next instant, she was gone.

Kagome took a deep breath and sighed.

"How are you here?" she addressed the woman sitting before the fire.

"I am the path," Midoriko answered. "Would you like some tea?"

A flat, hollow voice whispered in the dark room.

"The General has come."

"Ah," another voice answered, placid, though a little sad. "The Son of Ages."

"Who are you? How have you come to my house?" Sesshoumaru demanded.

The fire in the center of the room grew up again, and he saw that, though it looked like the Hyouden's kitchen, it was not. An orange haze diffused the air, as though candles danced about the room like fireflies he could not catch in his sight. He saw that it was Rin and Jaken who had spoken. Jaken sat on the bench in the center of the back wall, with his staff planted on the floor and Rin standing beside him, looking for all the world like a seated emperor. They looked at him with an unwavering, clear vision, and he knew that they were mirages.

"Who are you?" he repeated.

"We are Us," they replied.

"You are of Earth," Kagome stood beside him.

"What do you want of me?" he asked.

"You are the General," Inuyasha said from behind him. "The General is you."

Sesshoumaru turned and saw the yellow eyes gazing at him, intent and yet distant. He turned his back on him.

"I have had enough of tricks and illusions," he said.

"Illusions?" Shinme turned to Jaken.

"To see that the General means that we are false," Jaken answered.

"False?" Shinme stared at Sesshoumaru. "But we are Us."

"To see that the General does not know what that means," Kikyou was walking around him, looking into his eyes. "To know that he is limited."

"Limited?" Sesshoumaru scoffed. "You do not know me."

"To know you?" Jaken repeated, dismayed. "To know that you are of Earth. To know that though you are _of_ Us, you are not Us. To know of your birth, of your steps on the Earth, before there _was_ an Earth."

"To know that you are mortal," Tamotsu told him.

"I am not mortal," Sesshoumaru replied.

"Your linear existence has a beginning," Kikyou insisted. "To understand, therefore, that it must have an end."

"The General _will_ end," Tamotsu declared, and his fellows nodded.

"Are you attempting to threaten me?"

They looked at each other.

"It is confrontational," Kagome commented to Tamotsu.

"Antagonistic," Tamotsu agreed.

"To wonder if it can be trusted?" Rin asked.

Tamotsu shrugged. "He is the General. The General is him."

"Why?" Sesshoumaru interrupted. "Why must it be me?"

They looked at him.

"To think that he is very much like the Beloved," Kagura commented.

"To agree," Kagome replied. "To see that the General does not wish to be the General."

Kagura approached him. She looked the same as the last time he had seen her, months ago at the dawn of a doomed summer. She placed a hand on his shoulder, which lay there warm and heavy like heated metal.

"To wish is irrelevant," she said to him. "You are the General. You are the Son of Ages. You are of Earth. Your linear existence is limited. You are the General because the General must be, and must be you."

"I…I do not understand," Sesshoumaru admitted.

"To not be necessary that you understand," Kagura said to him. "To need only to know that you are the General."

"What if I do not do as you wish?" he asked.

They looked around at each other again.

"It is challenging," Kagome said.

"It is hostile," Inuyasha said.

"To wish is irrelevant," Kagura told him again. "You are the General. The General is You. No one else can be the General. You can be no one but the General. It is…"

She hesitated, and looked to her fellows.

"Necessary?" Kagome suggested.

"Inevitable," Rin supplied.

"Yes," Jaken agreed. "Inevitable."

"Who are you to make decisions about my destiny?"

"We are—

"We are Us," Sesshoumaru injected. "Yes, you said that before."

"Before," Rin repeated.

"We are not you," Jaken said. "And you are not us, yet you are _of_ us. You are the General. Still, to think it correct to tell you that we are not the deciders."

"What?" Sesshoumaru looked up at them. "Then who is?"

"To be unable to communicate it to the General."

"Then what do you do?"

"Do?"

"What is your purpose?"

They looked at each other for a long while, so long that he began to suspect that they had forgotten about him. Then, without noticing any change or movement, he was no longer looking at the kitchen, but he found himself standing in the garden behind the Hyouden. A few feet away, he recognized himself. For a disturbing moment, his mind struggled against that discordant image, but then he understood that he was looking at a younger version of himself. The young Sesshoumaru was listening to his father explain something about unarmed combat. His father's expression was intent, and he looked younger than Sesshoumaru ever remembered him, but he made no sign that he saw the intruders. Touran, his old enemy of the panther demon tribe, stood beside him in the snow, her ocean of hair lifting lightly in the wind and her armor gleaming white under the winter sun.

"His linear existence was terminated," she said in a flat tone.

"Yes," Sesshoumaru answered.

"This happened before," she said.

"Before what?"

"Before what you call 'now'."

Sesshoumaru began to piece together a picture in his mind of the situation.

"Your existence is not linear," he said, somewhat unconsciously mimicking their speech.

"The General is wise," Touran said.

"But how does that tell me of your purpose?"

The walls of the world moved away again. He found that he was standing over his own body. He could tell that it was closer in time to his own. Was this his own death? If these…_beings_…had no concept of time, could they show him the future?

No, it was not the future. It was still the past.

"This happened after, but still before now," Touran said.

"That is correct."

The two of them looked down on the unconscious figure.

"To see that your path has been…adversarial."

"You could say that," he murmured.

The past Sesshoumaru was almost comatose. What remained of his left arm bled like a scarlet river.

"To think your linear existence is limiting. To realize that you can only learn from things that qualify as 'before'.

"We cannot see what is to come, in most cases. You are correct."

"To conceive that such a species can survive is almost impossible."

"Species?"

Touran hesitated and her brow furrowed.

"The children of Earth, like you and the Beloved."

"She and I are not the same kind."

"To seem the same to us."

Sesshoumaru frowned.

"You have still not answered my question," he said. "What is your purpose?"

"To inquire, what do you do here?" she asked, pointing to his body.

After a moment, he answered.

"I heal."

They moved again. They were walking in the woods and it was the height of summer, under the midnight sky. Ahead of him, he saw the shadow of a tall figure and by now he knew enough to guess it was some other 'him'. He followed it, with the pretend Touran walking beside him.

"I remember this place," he murmured.

"To assume you would," Touran answered. "To assume you must, in order to bring us here."

Sesshoumaru watched as he came into the moonlight. The other Sesshoumaru looked up at the diamond stars.

"This also came before," Touran said.

"Yes, before many things."

Sesshoumaru saw the rhododendrons glowing in the moonlight, their tall branches swaying in the warm breeze. The bay trees perfumed the air.

"You yearn for this place?"

"Perhaps," he said. "Somewhat. My life was much simpler here."

"To know that that is not you," she pointed at the other Sesshoumaru, disappearing now into the dark woods. "It cannot be you again. Your existence is linear."

"Yes," he answered simply, and looked away.

"What do you do here?"

"I am traveling," he shrugged. "I traveled much, in my youth."

"Why do you look at the stars?"

"They tell me where I am. They aid in deciding where to go."

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, only to find they were in the kitchen again.

"You explained to the General?" Jaken asked.

The rest of them looked at him.

For the first time in what felt like centuries, Sesshoumaru perceived himself in real danger of looking like an idiot. In his mind he reassessed what had happened.

His father was teaching him. The stars were guiding him. In the glen he was healing…

No, not just healing. He was learning.

"You are guides," he said. "Teachers."

They looked around at each other, and Sesshoumaru thought a few of them even appeared relieved.

"To judge these terms to be sufficient," Jaken said. He waved his hand. "To go with our protection."

The light surrounding them faded into black, and he found he was looking at his own kitchen, which now appeared hard, stale, and ordinary. Kagome was sitting on the floor by the fire, deep in conversation with Midoriko. The dead priestess was sipping tea, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

"What is the meaning of this," he demanded.

They both turned to him. Kagome looked startled, and when she saw his face she flinched, a typical reaction that, however slight, he never failed to notice. Midoriko, however, only smiled.

"Welcome back," she said. "Tea?"

"The Wanderer has come."

"As was agreed."

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha stood in front of her.

"What?" Kikyou mumbled, looking around.

She was still in the kitchen, but the room was different. It was overshadowed by a cloud, as though she were looking at it through thin rice paper.

"Who are you? Where is Kagome?"

"To believe that the Wanderer refers to the Beloved," Inuyasha stated.

"Yes," Sesshoumaru answered.

"Yes! The Beloved!" Kikyou exclaimed. "Where is she? Is she alright?"

"The Wanderer is concerned," Inuyasha said.

"It is her duty," someone else answered. "To think she performs it well."

Kikyou was stunned to see her sister, Kaede; not the old woman, but the little girl she left behind all those years ago.

"To agree," Inuyasha responded.

"The Beloved is in her proper place and time again," Sesshoumaru told her.

"And…we are not?" Kikyou asked.

"We have no time as you know it," Kaede responded.

"I see," Kikyou murmured. "Why do you appear before me in forms that I know do not belong to you?"

"We draw ourselves from you," Kohaku answered. "It is the only way we can…"

He glanced around at his fellows.

"Converse?" Rin suggested.

"Yes. Converse."

"What do you want of me?" Kikyou asked.

"You are the Wanderer," a new voice answered.

Kikyou took in a sharp breath. It was, or appeared to be, Tsubaki, standing in front of her, a young woman in her prime, her glossy hair falling past her knees and her green eyes wide and bright.

"You are the Reborn," Tsubaki continued. "We ask no more."

"Why am I here with you?"

Tsubaki put a hand on her shoulder. It was as warm as a stone taken from a fire.

"Its heart is sick," she said in an even, matter-of-fact tone.

"To wonder if it is for us to repair?" Kohaku inquired of his fellows.

"To believe it may be necessary for the Purpose," Rin replied.

"To agree," Sesshoumaru said. "To move to aid it."

"What?" Kikyou asked, startled. "Do you mean me? Aid me?"

The room changed without warning. They were no longer in the Hyouden's kitchen. It took her a few moments to piece it together, to resurrect the sights and smells that had been entombed in the catacombs of her memory. She saw that she was standing in the home of her childhood. A girl of no more than eleven sat by the fire on a dirt floor, holding a tiny baby in her arms.

"Kaede," she whispered.

"To not understand your linear time," Tsubaki said to her. "But to think it seems…limiting."

"Can they hear us?" Kikyou asked in alarm.

"To not be where, or when, they are."

"I suppose it may be limiting," Kikyou murmured, staring at the mirages. "I do not know, because I cannot understand time any other way."

"Things occur _before_ this, and _after_ this?"

"Yes," Kikyou answered.

"Why?"

Kikyou searched for a possible explanation.

"Things that occur before, may effect things that occur after."

"So… it is a path?"

"Yes, you could say that."

"To understand destiny," the spirit seemed satisfied.

"I suppose you do."

"But what is the purpose of this to_ you_?"

"What do you mean? Kikyou asked.

"What does linear time mean to _you_?" Tsubaki pressed her. "To think you wish to know more about your destiny. To know that you are confused about your path. What then does the path mean to you?"

"Well…" Kikyou floundered, feeling foolish and uncouth, and trying to remind herself that this was not really Tsubaki. "As time moves along, we learn from the things that came before, and try to prepare for the things that come after."

"Are you successful?" Tsubaki asked her.

"Sometimes."

"To conclude then that you must be better able to endure what qualifies as _after_."

"Yes, usually."

Their surroundings shifted again. They were no longer in a room at all, but standing in a green field. The sky looked like early morning. Kikyou did not need to think about it this time; she recognized every blade of grass. She took a sharp breath and watched as, what looked like Inuyasha's foot, dug its heel into what looked like her hand, or was her hand, a long time ago.

"Demon blood is good enough for you," he sneered in a harsh voice, crushing the precious shell in his fist.

"Traitor!" she heard herself screaming. "Traitor!"

Kikyou watched her old self bleeding on the grass.

"Stop this!" she hissed.

Tsubaki stood by her. "This came after?"

"Yes!" Kikyou shut her eyes against the sting of unshed tears.

"But before now?"

"Yes! Now take me away!"

"Why?"

"Why what?" Kikyou cried. "Take me away!"

The other Kikyou was gone, leaving only the blood.

They were indoors again. The room was warm, and smelled of burning wood and dirt. She heard the sound of woman humming softly. Nearby she saw a woman and a little girl sitting on a straw mat. The woman was brushing the little girl's hair.

Kikyou took in a relieved, shuddering breath, and blinked away tears.

"This was _before_," Tsubaki said.

"Before many things," Kikyou replied, looking at her mother's face. "Early in my life."

"Early?" Tsubaki's rosebud lips mouthed the word as though she had never heard it.

"Near the beginning of my life."

"Beginning?"

"Yes, when I was born."

"To understand that if there's a beginning, there must be an end."

"Yes, to die."

"To terminate your linear existence."

"Yes."

Tsubaki pointed to the mother and child. "This came early. Then, does it prepare you for things that come after?"

"In some ways. In some ways, all the things that come before prepare us for what comes after."

"And what comes after, will become what happened before?"

"And prepare us for other things, yes."

"Then, why?"

"Why what?"

The fire-lit room was gone.

"Die Inuyasha!" her own voice screeched with hatred, from somewhere behind her. Before she even had time to turn, she heard the sickening sound of tearing flesh. She heard Inuyasha give a low cry. She looked up and saw him, staring across the clearing in dismay.

"Kikyou…" he whispered.

Then he faltered and faded. The arrow kept him against the tree, but the cursed jewel fell from his limp hand.

This was Inuyasha. The other one, she now knew, was a fake, a decoy, but this one was real. This one had loved her. He was the only one who ever truly loved her.

"Why do you keep bringing me here?" Kikyou demanded, her voice thick.

"To know that _you_ bring _us_ here, Wanderer. You are the Wanderer, for through time, through life and death, and across the earth, you have wandered."

Tsubaki's face was composed and not marred by any of the real Tsubaki's haughty contempt. Kikyou still found the spectacle disturbing.

"There is no point to this," she cried. "Take me away!"

"To be unable to give you what you will not give to yourself," Tsubaki replied. "Why?"

"Why what?" Kikyou screamed at her.

Tsubaki turned back to Inuyasha.

"You exist here," she declared.

Kikyou sank to the ground at Inuyasha's feet.

"I do not wish to be here," she moaned.

"Then why _are_ you here?"

Kikyou could not answer. She crossed her arms tight across her knees and closed her eyes. Tsubaki, her dark priestess robes rustling in the warm wind, stood over her.

"This went _before_," the fake priestess persisted. "Your existence is linear. So _why_ are you here?"

Kikyou drew a shuddering breath and wiped her face with her sleeves. She gasped for air as the sobs stormed through her like a typhoon.

"I could never figure out," she cried in a broken voice, "a way to live with what came after."

"So you _choose_ to exist here."

Her face in her knees, Kikyou could only nod.

"To know that you are wrong on many counts."

Kikyou looked up at her.

"To know that his existence is not terminated, not in your time, and neither is yours."

Tsubaki was gone and for a moment Kikyou was looking at Kaede, the old woman, who smiled at her, a soft, gentle expression. Kaede shifted into Kagome, who pointed at her own chest.

"The Beloved loves you."

Kagome's eyes melted into Kohaku's.

"The Golden-hearted loves you."

"The Bearer loves you," Rin's voice was girlish and her beautiful face tender and generous.

Kikyou smiled through her tears, almost laughing.

"The _Bearer_, as you say, loves everybody."

She looked down again and saw she was looking at red hakama and bare, hard feet. The wind stirred Inuyasha's white hair.

"The Guardian loves you. To know that he thinks of you every day."

Kikyou could not bring herself to look him in the face. When she at last raised her eyes again, Tsubaki had returned.

"All of these love you, though they know all of this," she waved her a porcelain hand at the surroundings. "They love you as you are."

More tears rolled down Kikyou's cheek, off her chin, and landed on her knees, but she knew she would not sob. That seemed to be gone from her.

"To inquire if you are ready to return?"

Kikyou took a deep breath, and released it slowly.

"Yes," she answered, standing and straightening her robes. She sniffed and rubbed her swollen eyes.

"You are ready to leave this place."

Kikyou did not look around. "Yes. I am ready."

"What do you mean, the path?"

"In order for one of you to be there, I have to be here," Midoriko explained.

"But…Sesshoumaru and I were gone at the same time."

"Not exactly."

Kagome sighed. "Whatever."

"That is for the best, Kagome-sama," the miko said to her, smiling.

Sesshoumaru had said nothing else, but he did not leave the room. Kagome guessed that he was waiting to see for himself if Kikyou would rematerialize from nothing.

"Does that mean you will be gone again as soon as Kikyou comes back? In that very instant?"

"That is correct."

"Then tell me, before you go, what am I to do? What are we to do?"

Midoriko only looked at her steadily.

"Please, Midoriko-sama, I need to know. Should I stay here? Should I go and look for my friends?"

Midoriko turned her gaze back to the fire and was quiet for some time.

"I cannot give you detailed instructions, Beloved," she said at last. "It is not that easy."

"Why not?" Kagome demanded in exasperation.

"There are rules," Midoriko answered.

"Rules?" Kagome repeated. "Are you kidding me?"

"Not at all. I cannot simply take your hand and guide your every step."

Kagome stared at her, then threw her arms in the air and sat down again with a heavy sigh.

"There are some things, however, that I think you should know."

"Oh?" Kagome muttered, not feeling very gracious. "Like what?"

"Your death would be the ruin of us all," Midoriko said, giving Sesshoumaru a sidelong glance. "As _he_ knows perfectly well. That is why he surrendered his birthright for you."

"What?" Kagome exclaimed.

"There is no need for this," Sesshoumaru growled.

Kagome, however, was not paying attention to him.

"Birthright?" she murmured, then she gasped and stared at the priestess in disbelief. "Do you mean Tenseiga?"

"That very dear object is gone from your world now, and is irretrievable. Death took it, in exchange for letting you come again to the world of living."

Kagome was astounded, but her immediate thought was that Sesshoumaru did not even like the damn sword.

"His sacrifice was greater than you think."

Kagome flinched. She did not like to contemplate how much of her mind Midoriko could read.

"The sword was passed down from his father, as you know."

"Right," Kagome whispered.

"Stop this," she vaguely heard Sesshoumaru's grim voice, from somewhere in the room.

"You also know that it was fashioned by the smith Totosai-san, at Ichiro-sama's request, but in the end, what it was, was a piece of Sesshoumaru-sama's mother."

Kagome closed her eyes. Somehow, from some memory that did not belong to her, the image of the white-haired girl in the forest returned again.

"Chiyoko," she whispered.

"The same. Chiyoko-kun separated herself from her beloved son centuries ago, something she was required to do to continue her task. That sword, a piece of herself that she left with her husband, was her only link to him. One of Chiyoko-kun's responsibilities, besides the birth of the General and many other tasks, is to guard the gates of the underworld."

"That is why the sword could resurrect," Kagome murmured to herself.

She got to her feet, her eyes seeking Sesshoumaru on their own for a brief second, and she could not help but notice that he carried only one sword.

"How could you do that?" she turned on Midoriko. "How could you make him do that?"

"Do not talk foolish," the woman answered in a stern voice. "As if I or anyone else could make him do anything."

"Who is talking foolish?" Kagome retorted. "If you told him that the Universe would come to an end if he didn't, then you made him!"

Midoriko rose.

"Kagome-sama," she said patiently, "you know that _if_ I said that, it was because it was the truth."

Kagome stared at her helplessly.

"Many have paid a dear price for you, for your success," Midoriko continued. "If Sesshoumaru-sama is beginning to appreciate the reality of the situation, than you should as well."

"Excellent," Midoriko said, suddenly cheerful again. "It is time. We will speak soon."

She was gone and sure enough, in the blink of an eye, Kikyou was standing in her place. Instinctively, Kagome rose and went to her, taking her hands.

"Are you alright?"

The other miko nodded, though Kagome thought her face was pale.

"What happened?"

But Kikyou only shook her head, her eyes distant and vague. Kagome looked around and saw that Sesshoumaru had left the room unnoticed. Feeling heavy and numb, she took slow steps across the room to the bench and sat down.

"And what of you?" Kikyou asked her. "Are you well?"

"I…I don't know."

She related to Kikyou what she had seen in "the other place."

"So, you think the monsters that are causing havoc to the north are a result of breeding human women with the spider demons?"

Kagome swallowed hard and nodded.

"That is something despicable enough to entertain Naraku's predilections," Kikyou murmured, sitting down next to her.

"It was…horrible," Kagome shuddered.

"I am sorry that you had to see it."

Kikyou covered her hand with her own.

"Kikyou, I want you to tell me more about that day."

"What day?" Kikyou asked.

There was a slight alarm in her voice, but Kagome didn't notice.

"When I died, in the baths."

"Oh. I see." Kikyou sighed. "I suppose that is only proper."

She recounted how she and Kohaku had been accosted in the gardens.

"If you don't mind my asking," Kagome interrupted. "Why were you out there?"

"It seems like so long ago," Kikyou answered. "But I remember that I wanted to speak to him about his habit of avoiding the house. It was in my thoughts that he was too solitary; that it was not good for him."

"Oh. What did he say?"

"We were attacked before we got too far into it. A man said that I should be killed because I was priestess. They were about to do it, but…they underestimated Kohaku."

Kagome was silent, but her lips pressed together into a thin, white line.

"He killed all of them."

Kagome winced but said nothing.

"That is when I found out what they were after. I do not know why I have not yet told you."

"Told me what?"

Kikyou went to a box in a corner and pried open the lid. She rummaged through it for a minute or two, finally bringing out a crumpled ball of paper. She flattened and straightened it as much as possible, then handed it to Kagome.

The paper was badly torn and wrinkled, and dark blood stains were scattered across the surface, but it was still readable. In that moment, Inuyasha, newly reunited with Sango and Miroku, first saw Ayame; Tamotsu met Shinme in the Tenryu valley; Shippou and Kagura were speaking with Taroumaru, and Kouga stood in the woods, with Kagome's mother and friends, listening to Hachi tell him that Kaede was dead. Kagome knew none of this as she read the Warrant, the last of the Dissidents to do so.

"These descriptions aren't very flattering, are they?" she said, after reading it several times.

"You know, of course, who wrote it."

"Well, yeah. Every person Naraku despises is here." She rolled her eyes. "You'd think he wouldn't want to be so obvious."

"As soon as I read that, I ran into the house. I know Kohaku was with me, but I do not actually recall the trip to the baths. The next thing I remember, I was…"

Listening to her voice, Kagome began to see the events play out as if she were there, and she understood that she was seeing these things as Kikyou remembered them. Once again, she found herself in awe of the link that was growing between them, and she wondered how far it would go, before the end.

"You were dead in my arms."

_They killed her Sesshoumaru. They think we're the monsters now._

"I've never heard you call him just 'Sesshoumaru'."

Kikyou was silent.

"What happened then?"

"Someone, I think Jaken, told me what Sesshoumaru-sama's sword could do. I asked him about it, of course, but he said that it would not work."

"Why?"

"He did not know. Then I prayed, and Midoriko appeared."

"She gets around a lot," Kagome commented. "For a dead person."

"She was distraught. She said, 'this cannot be. Everything has been for nothing.'"

Kagome's hands fidgeted in her lap.

"Chiyoko-sama came next. I supposed Midoriko summoned her. As soon as she saw you on the floor, she became quite upset as well. She said something strange. She said, 'I've always been able to, before.'"

"Then Chiyoko did or said something, and Death appeared."

Kagome heard the memory of Jaken's small voice. _Death! Death has come!_

A strangeness to Kikyou's voice made Kagome look up. The young woman's face was pale, and touched with dread and fright.

"You've seen Death before, right?"

Kikyou nodded and wet her chapped lips.

"In the end, Death agreed to allow you to come back to us, if Sesshoumaru would give her the sword. This seemed to deeply effect his mother. She became angry."

_You don't know what you're asking!_

"I…I tried to convince him. Then I said that if he was willing to let you die, then he was condemning us all, and that I'd rather die at his hands anyway than Naraku's."

Kagome did not notice her breath quicken, as she saw Kikyou in her mind's eye, kneeling before Sesshoumaru's feet and pushing hear wealth of black hair away from her slender, white neck.

_Go ahead. Get it over with._

A terrible voice shook the halls of Kikyou's memory, and Kagome knew she was recalling the voice of Death. _So much for your prophecies. Behold! The end of the Commander and the Wanderer in the same day!_

_My son would never do that!_

Then she heard Jaken's voice again. _My lord. Don't._

"I guess I cannot say why I did that, and I do not know what happened next. Something happened to Sesshoumaru, however. I saw a look in his face…"

Kagome saw it too, and had no better understanding of it.

"He tossed the sword to Death."

_A wise decision, General._

"His mother wept. She seemed resentful when Midoriko asked her to retrieve you."

Kagome remembered gazing at the green banks of a gentle stream and then seeing the tall, white-haired woman looking down at her, her face marked with grief.

_Don't waste it!_

"So now there is no Tenseiga."

"And I get the feeling," Kikyou said, "that the like of it cannot be made again."

"Oh man," Kagome lowered her head into her hands. "I feel terrible."

"Why? It cannot be put at your feet. There is nothing that you could have done."

"Except not be here."

"This again?" Kikyou sighed. "I thought we settled this."

"I settled it with Sesshoumaru, I guess," Kagome answered. "But I'm still full of doubt."

She sat up again, running her fingers through her hair.

"I just don't know, Kikyou."

"What is causing you anxiety?" Kikyou asked her. "Inuyasha?"

"No," Kagome shook her head. "I miss him, of course, I don't mind telling you. But he can take care of himself. No, it's my mother, my family, that I can't stop thinking about."

"Based on all you have told me, and that I heard you tell Tamotsu, they are safe in 'your era', right?"

"Yes, but they haven't seen me in six months! Can you imagine how upset they must be? My poor mother, she must believe by now that something dreadful has happened. Every day that I stay here, it's like I'm knowingly hurting her."

_How did it come to this?_

Not for the first time, Sesshoumaru re-traced his steps, going back before the Rains, before his last encounter with Naraku in a ravine, on the other side of the lost summer and beyond a universe of outrageous trials and insults. His youth, his wandering, his brother, all his cold hatred and icy rage. His revival of Rin, his pursuit of Tessaiga, his first encounter with Naraku.

The first time he saw Kagome.

The first time he saw Kohaku.

Meeting Jaken.

Finding Kagome by the river.

The possession of Rin.

The loss of Tenseiga, the revelation…

_Where? Where did I go wrong?_

Once again he stood on the northern parapet of the Hyouden, and once again his only company was the ghost of the wolf demoness. Her presence had lost all its recrimination. Now he sensed only pity from her. It disgusted him, but he did not dare attempt to drive her away for fear of making himself ridiculous, chasing a phantom that maybe only existed in his mind.

At night he heard her voice drifting through the halls.

_The proud do not endure, the simple ones are happy_

_Ladada, ladada_

_At last the mighty fall and the Spring is so happy_

_Ladada, ladada_

The last note always lingered, fading into a distant wail, and he always wished he was killing spider demons and that Tamotsu was the one to stay behind.

If he was going to suffer through all this absurdity, that woman could damn well suffer with him. After their "visions", he kept Kagome with him for hours every day. He questioned her about her past and her family, often repeating questions he had asked her already, partly to annoy her, partly to test her truthfulness. He made her repeat, many times, everything that was said during her encounter with the "Outsiders", as most people in the house had come to refer to them. She question him as well, of course, but most of the time he answered only with silence.

Then the day came when she walked into the room without being called. He looked up, surprised, but she did not sit in her customary spot on a mat across the low table from himself. She sat down next to him and opened the window a few inches.

"The weather's not bad," she said. "For January."

"What do you think you are doing?"

"I'm keeping you company. That _is_ what you want, isn't it?" she looked him in the eye.

"I want only information."

"Well, I've told you all the information I carry in my head," she shrugged. "Several times over, in fact. And I don't much feel like answering questions today, anyhow."

He gave her a dangerous look, but she did not seem to notice. Movement drew his eye and he saw that she was toying with a long, black feather, turning it about in the sunlight to cast it in green and blue sheens.

"Pretty, isn't it?" she said, smiling. "I found it in the garden. I think it would hold ink, if you wanted to use it for anything. I noticed that you have paper with writing on it on the table in the corner. What do you write about, anyway?"

Now he really did glare at her, but she was unimpressed.

"Right," she said, looking back out the window. "So…I'm here to keep you company."

_The proud do not endure, the simple ones are happy_

_Ladada, ladada_

Sesshoumaru set his teeth.

"Get out."

"What?"

"Leave. Now."

She stared at him, then shrugged in the most heartless manner imaginable and walked out of the room. After she was gone he saw that she had left the feather on the floor in front of his knee. He picked it up gingerly with his claws. It hissed and smoked as it disintegrated into nothing.

The next morning, he decided to call her at the first sign of daybreak, sure that she would be asleep. While it did take her longer to appear, she entered the room with bright eyes and a smile and, in her most audacious display to date, carrying a tea tray.

"Good morning, my lord," she said cheerfully.

While Sesshoumaru contemplated in silence whether or not she was mocking him with "my lord", she prepared and served the tea.

"Ah!" she let out a delighted sigh after sipping her drink. "There's nothing like a hot cup of tea on a winter morning."

Sesshoumaru's eyes did not leave her, but he said nothing.

"What's the matter?" she asked, glancing at his cup. "Don't you want it? It's not too hot for you, is it?"

Sesshoumaru slammed his fist on the table. It was sudden, and shockingly loud in the large, empty room. The tea cup flinched and the liquid jittered, but did not spill. The second the sound vibrated on his ear drums, he was scalded by a sense of shameful foolishness.

"You dare to mock me, in my own house?"

Kagome put the cup on the table with unruffled calm, but when she lifted her eyes to him he could see that they were as hard as agates.

"You're a real pain in the ass, you know that? Just what the hell is your problem anyway?"

"You are here to answer _my _questions."

"Then ask one, for heaven's sake!" she picked up the cup again. "But I wasn't trying to mock you, so just drink the damn tea."

"I do not consume human food."

She sighed. "Fine. Whatever makes you happy."

"Do women from your _era_ always speak with such language?"

"I'm not a princess, Sesshoumaru," she answered. "Besides, I thought we already established that I was an ill-bred tramp."

"I do not recall having ever used the word 'tramp'."

She raised an eyebrow.

"So, you're saying then that I'm _not_ a tramp?"

He thought about it.

"To the best of my knowledge," he answered with decided seriousness, "no, you are not."

She smiled. "Why, thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama. That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"What is it between you and that demon?"

Kagome, sitting between Jaken and Kohaku, looked up from her supper. Kikyou sat across the low table, and Rin sat beside her. The room was dim and gloomy in the fitful, orange light of the kitchen fire.

"What?"

"Sesshoumaru-sama," Kikyou said. "He often requests your company. To what purpose?"

Kagome snorted. "You'd have to ask him. Who can say why that guy does anything?"

"Don't you disrespect Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken warned her.

She turned her head to him.

"Do _you_ understand everything he does?"

Jaken started to answer, but his mouth hung open. Tapping a chopstick on his lips, he gazed in the distance, his large eyes vague and watery.

"I don't understand anything he does!" he lamented.

"Just so," Kagome said. "That's all I'm saying."

As they continued eating, conversation inevitably returned to the "Outsiders", as the encounters had with them by Kagome, Kikyou, and Sesshoumaru, were by far the most interesting thing to discuss.

"So they don't know your names?" Rin asked.

"That is how it appears," Kikyou said. "They seem to have their own way of referring to us."

"Like what?"

"Well, for one thing, they call you _the Bearer_."

"Huh?" Rin's expression was puzzled.

"What does that mean?" Jaken asked. "Bearer of what?"

"Who can say?" Kikyou shrugged. "That is, besides the Outsiders."

"It's particularly strange in Rin's case," Kagome said. "She doesn't have any possessions."

"I suspect it may be more symbolic, or metaphorical, than that."

"I only heard my own name, and yours," Kagome said.

"I had the chance to hear several," Kikyou said.

"In what way? In what context?"

Kikyou chewed her food slowly, her eyes distant, and was silent.

"I would rather not say," she said after a time.

"But it might be important," Kagome argued.

"No, not this. It was personal."

Kagome opened her mouth to argue again, but thought better of it and let it drop.

"Who else did you hear of, then?"

"Kohaku, the Golden-Hearted."

Kohaku choked on his rice.

"What?" he exclaimed, flushing.

Rin laughed. "I think that's a wonderful title for you, Kohaku-kun!"

Kohaku stammered and stared wide-eyed, then began shoving his food in his mouth again, still blushing and avoiding Rin's eye.

"And the Guardian, as well."

Kagome turned from Kohaku back to Kikyou again.

"Who is that?" she asked.

"Inuyasha."

No one said anything. Kagome put down her bowl, and it clanked on the table softly. Jaken and Kohaku continued eating, their eyes troubled.

Kagome crawled around the table to Rin's side.

"Where did you get that coat, Rin? It's very nice."

"Coat?"

"Yeah, your haori."

"Oh."

The young woman looked down at the fabric and pressed the sleeve between her fingers. It was thick, with many layers quilted together in an intricate, painstaking stitch. The outer shell was a creamy golden color, with white anemones embroidered on it with a masterful skill.

"Sesshoumaru-sama gave it to me. I don't know where it came from."

"It was his mother's," Jaken piped in.

Kagome and Rin turned to him amazement.

"Really?" Rin asked, seeming delighted. She looked down at it again. "I had no idea."

"You can tell from the anemones. They were her favorite. Anything you see in the Hyouden with that design, it used to belong to Sesshoumaru's mother."

"Did you know her, Jaken-sama?" Rin asked.

"Of course not, stupid! She died when Sesshoumaru-sama was born."

"Then…how…?"

"I have heard much of her, from people who did know her, like Tamotsu and Shinme-sama."

"That's right!" Kagome said. "Tamtosu told me he was related to Sesshoumaru's mother."

"Yes, though I don't know how," Jaken said.

He rose and picked up the remains of his meal, carrying the plate and cup to a wooden trough in the corner.

"I've had enough of all this blathering with a bunch of humans," he complained.

He walked out of the room. He did not say where he was going, but no one cared enough to ask.

"Can I see this?" Kagome tugged on Rin's sleeve.

"Of course!"

Rin put down her bowl and shrugged out of the loose garment. She handed it to Kagome who laid it across her knees, tracing the intricate design with a finger.

"It's really soft."

Rin smiled.

"What's that?" Kagome asked suddenly.

"What's what?"

"There's something strange here," she frowned. "Look."

Kikyou edged closer to them and peered over Kagome's shoulder. Kagome lifted the garment, turning it in the light.

"See that?"

There was a small but definite lump on the inside of the left breast.

"It looks as though someone has patched it here," Kikyou murmured, pointing to a square of stitches.

With a short exclamation, Rin quite suddenly clasped her hands over her mouth.

"Oh, my goodness!"

"What?" Kagome looked up in alarm.

Rin pressed her hands to both her cheeks, her eyes wide.

"I can't believe I forgot about it!"

"What is it?"

Rin took the coat back and turned it over. She tugged at the spot, tearing open the stitches.

"Be careful!" Kagome cried, dismayed that she was tearing such a beautiful garment.

"It's alright," Rin said.

She reached into the hole she'd made. When she pulled out her hand, it was clenched into a tight fist, and trembling.

"Kagome-chan," she whispered, "you were holding this in your hand, that day."

A deep thrill of fear ran through Kagome' chest.

"It can't be!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Kikyou demanded, exasperated.

"I don't know what it is," Rin said, "but it took all my strength to get it out of her hand. It was the hand…the arm…that…"

"Rin-chan," Kagome whispered. "Open your hand. Show it to Kikyou."

Rin held up her tiny fist and slowly opened the fingers. In the middle of her palm, like a pearl in an oyster, lay a large, luminous jewel. It was a deep, blood red.

"Well, we know that it is not the Shikon no Tama," Kikyou said, peering at it. "We have half of that and this thing is whole. It does not feel like it, either."

"No, it's not the Sacred Jewel." Kagome's voice wavered. "It's Kagura's heart."

Kikyou and Rin stared at her. Rin's mouth hung open.

"You mean to say, that that demon's heart has been here the whole time?" Kikyou demanded.

"So it seems," Kagome answered.

"How did we not sense it?"

"I don't know. Maybe Sesshoumaru's presence masked it."

After some silence, Kikyou sighed, then smiled and shook her head.

"At least now I think we know what it is that Rin bears."

"Me?" Rin looked up.

Kikyou nodded.

"But…I mean…is that right?"

"What do you mean?" Kikyou asked.

"Well, it's Kagura, she's tried to kill me, a couple of times. Do you think it's OK that I hold this?"

"You're not planning to try and destroy it, to get back at her?" Kagome asked.

"Of course not!"

"If it bothers you, I'll take it," Kagome held out her hand.

"No!" Kikyou snapped.

Kagome snatched her hand back and stared at her.

"You could purify it just by touching it, which may kill Kagura."

"What? Are you sure? But, I brought it here!"

"I am not certain. Perhaps you were too weak from your confrontation with Naraku then. I think it would not pay to take chances. If she were here, I imagine that Kagura would agree."

"OK then," Kagome laughed. "Rin-chan, it's yours. Keep it safe!"

Rin swallowed hard and nodded, her eyes still wide.

"Can you sew it up again?" Kikyou asked.

"Yes," Rin whispered.

"Good. Return it to where it was, and let us not speak of it, for now. We should keep this information to ourselves."

The other two women nodded, and said nothing.

"Sometimes I wish I could trade places with you," she said to him one morning.

They were sitting in the usual room, by the usual window. The weather was mild enough to have the window open and Sesshoumaru gazed out of it towards the northern mountains. She was sitting behind him, doing something to his hair.

He had only allowed such an affront to his dignity because they were alone, because his hair was cumbersome to handle himself with one arm, and because he told himself that this was something a normal servant would do.

Not to mention she had agreed to stop chattering in exchange for the privilege.

"You said you would not talk."

"Yes, well, sometimes I say things."

He started to turn his head.

"No, don't! You'll mess me up."

Seething, he returned to same position, ticking off the reasons he had for not killing her.

"Why do you envy me?" he asked, to cover his annoyance.

"You never seem to be cold."

"That would be impossible."

"Impossible?"

"Or nearly so. Indeed, I feel it is too warm."

Kagome leaned forward and turned her head to peer at him.

"Really? You're too warm right now? I'm freezing."

He started to make an offer to close the window, but checked his tongue, remembering that he wanted it open.

"We are very different."

_You seem the same to us._

Without warning, a small hand closed around his forehead. At first it was as cool as silk, but it quickly warmed. He shot her a hard glance.

"Sorry!" she squeaked, and turned her attention back to his hair. "I was just curious. You were right; you're burning up. If you were anyone else, I'd swear you had a deadly fever."

"I am not ill."

"Right. Of course not. It's surprising though."

"Why is that?"

"Looking at you gives one the impression that your skin would be cold and hard, like marble, but it's the opposite."

She laughed. "I bet you liked to play in the snow when you were little!"

"Play?" he mouthed the word incredulously.

"Well, yeah, when you were a child. Surely, Sesshoumaru-sama was not always the stern and serious man who sits before me."

"Now I know you are mocking me."

She sighed. "This again? Why do we have to have this argument every day?"

She slipped away and around to the other side of the table.

"Ah! The kettle is still warm."

"What is this?" he demanded, holding the small end of what looked like a long, white rope.

"Uh…I braided it."

"To what end?"

"Men who wear their hair long often braid it. It's stylish and dignified."

"According to whom?"

She began pouring the hot water over her tea.

"I don't know…people."

"_Human _people?"

"I've seen male demons with braided hair."

"Name one."

"The elder of the Thunder Brothers, for one."

He stared at her.

"You are referring to those vermin who were killed by _Inuyasha_?"

Kagome sighed and put down her a cup a little too hard.

"Wearing the braid won't cause you to be defeated by Inuyasha," she said from behind clenched teeth.

He narrowed his eyes and began to pull the tie.

"You know, if you take it out, I won't be able to sleep tonight until I do it again."

His yellow eyes darkened and became narrow and dangerous. Then in a slow, deliberate movement he cut the tie and pulled his fingers through the whole mess. She started to move toward him, but he fixed her with a cold gaze.

"Try it."

Her eyes widened and she sat back down.

"Fine," she said. "Be that way, if you don't feel guilty about wasting most of my morning."

"I find that I can bear that thought with some fortitude."

She rolled her eyes and put her chin in one hand.

The room fell silent. Sounds from the outside world, of birds that still braved the winter, seemed loud and yet remote. Sesshoumaru wondered where the wolf demoness went when she wasn't haunting him. He looked out the window at the valley with its shallow river and wondered where Tamotsu was.

"So, what now?" she broke the silence.

He turned out of his reverie and looked at her, but said nothing.

"Do you want me to go?"

At first he thought that she meant "away for good", and for one terrifying second, before he realized she meant merely that morning, he did not know what the hell his answer would be.

"Do whatever you wish," he shrugged, and returned his attention to the distant hills.

Kagome, her face still her in hands, turned her head in that direction as well.

"It's not in my nature to sit quietly," she said, "not when there's someone I want to talk to."

Sesshoumaru did not respond, and made sure not to look at her.

"Would you like to hear about space exploration?" she suggested brightly.

Kikyou was worried. The amount of time that Kagome was spending closeted away with Sesshoumaru was cause for growing concern, and she was not alone in that opinion.

Jaken was at first dismayed, then concerned, then irritated. When Kagome finished her breakfast and took a tea tray with her from the room, he knew where she was going and he glared at her back, but she never noticed.

"Why don't you do something?" he demanded of Kikyou one day.

"What do you mean, Jaken-sama?"

"You know," he waved his hand to indicate the upstairs of the house. "About that."

"You mean Kagome and Sesshoumaru-sama. I cannot imagine what you expect I may do."

"What about all that training you two were doing? Couldn't you take her outside to do that?"

"There is nothing left I can teach her."

"Well make something up!"

She smiled at him and offered a cup of tea, which he took.

"Why are you so worried?" she asked him.

"Aren't you?" he eyed her. "I can tell you are."

"Yes, but I know my reasons."

He looked at her for a long moment, but sipped his tea and remained silent.

"Where the devil is that Tamotsu?" he muttered.

"That is a good question. I have not seen him for days and I will admit that I am concerned."

"Ah," Jaken waved it off. "He can take care of himself, but it's likely he's up to no good!"

"What about the kids?" he asked her.

"Rin-san is in the gardens," Kikyou said, "and Kohaku-san has gone hunting for food with Kirara."

"Again? How much food do you people need? And I thought Rin was not allowed to go off alone."

"I gave her clear instructions to remain close to the house," Kikyou explained. "She is just outside that door; I would hear if anything went awry."

"Hmph," Jaken continued drinking his tea.

"She is the sort who does not deal with confinement well," Kikyou went on. "She seems to weaken and pale if it goes on for too long."

"I've noticed that myself," he shook his head. "She is a wild thing. She'll never be a useful woman, or fit to be any man's wife."

"You may be right, my lord," Kikyou murmured.

Later that morning Jaken had wandered off on business of his own and Kikyou found herself alone. For lack of anything else to do, she took to walking up and down the empty halls of the Hyouden, peering in the dusty rooms and here and there picking up some article that needed cleaning or mending.

_As if I've become mistress of this strange house._

She came across the room where they used to sleep, before it got so cold. It was the same room where Kagome slept for months, recovering from the trauma of the Plateau. Kikyou closed the door behind her and looked around at the empty room, picturing the afternoons that Kagome spent with Tamotsu and Rin, teaching them the strange songs from her own era.

Kikyou was honest enough with herself to admit that she missed Tamotsu, but she was glad he was gone to be missed.

She was about to leave when she noticed something leaning against the far wall, draped in a large, shabby blanket. Deciding not to resist the curiosity, she went to it and pulled the drape away.

It was a mirror. Such a large one must have been quite expensive to acquire. It was big enough to reflect almost the entire room.

Kikyou's sense of wonder subsided, before she realized what was wrong.

The mirror was not reflecting the room.

With a start, she turned her head from the room to the mirror, to the room again. There could be no mistaking it. She pulled the top of the mirror away from the wall and looked behind it. Everything about it seemed ordinary, except that looking into it was more like looking through a window. The other room was nothing like the one she was in now. Looking at it, it seemed vaguely familiar.

Putting down the things she had collected, Kikyou went quickly from the room and down the hall, searching with her ears for Kagome's voice.

_That girl is never quiet for long._

"No, no," she heard Kagome say. "A ship that goes into space is nothing like a ship that goes on the ocean."

Kikyou followed the sound into another room. Both Kagome and Sesshoumaru were sitting on the floor, with a low table between them, near an open window, and they both turned to her.

"Imouto," she said breathlessly. "I need you for a moment."

Kikyou stopped short halfway across the floor and glanced at Sesshoumaru.

"I apologize," she bowed, "please excuse me for being rude in my haste."

Kagome laughed. "Kikyou, it's alright. It's only Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru shot her a sour look. Kagome pretended not to notice.

"What's the matter?"

"There is something strange, in your old room," Kikyou answered. "I want you to look at it."

"Ah," Kagome looked from her to Sesshoumaru, who remained impassive and indifferent.

"OK!" she said. "After you."

They had entered the room before Kikyou noticed that Sesshoumaru was close behind them.

"Over here," she said, indicating the mirror.

"Oh yeah," Kagome said. "I always wondered why—

Kikyou was looking at her when the color drained from Kagome's face. She tried to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, her breath quickened and her eyes filled with tears.

"What is it?" Sesshoumaru demanded. "Do you know it?"

Kagome dropped to her knees. She put her face in her hands and her body rocked back and forth. Then, with a low cry, she put out her hands, flat on the mirror's cold surface.

"Mother!" she cried. "Can you hear me?"

Sobbing, she slapped her palms against the surface.

"Mother!"

"Stop!" Kikyou snapped, grabbing her arms. "You could break it!"

Kagome clung to her, weeping.

"Imouto," Kikyou whispered, patting her head. "Is that your home?"

Kagome nodded.

Kikyou held the girl, and stared at the dim room on the other side of time. She looked up at Sesshoumaru and saw that he was looking not at the mirror, but at Kagome, his expression unreadable.

"Look!" she cried, lifted Kagome's head. "Is that your mother?"

Kagome looked up sharply, but her eyes narrowed. She edged closer, unconsciously putting her hands on the mirror again.

"I don't think so," she murmured.

A woman had come into the other room. She had sharp features and wavy, dark hair, that she wore long. Her clothes were strange; they reminded Kikyou of her first dream of Midoriko, when the Rains had started, when she had been taken to that other place.

"I don't know who that is!" Kagome cried.

The woman came right to the mirror, but did not look at it. Instead, she was looking down, searching for something.

"My…my mother's mirror is on top of a dressing table," Kagome said to no one in particular.

The woman's face was visible, and Kikyou felt a shock of recognition, but could not put a name to it. Suddenly, the woman covered her eye as if it hurt her. Then she did look into the mirror, but still gave no indication that she saw anything unusual.

"She can't see us," Kagome whispered. "Who is she? Why is she in my mother's room?"

"What is she doing?" Kikyou asked.

The woman was apparently examining her own eyes. They were a rusty brown color, but the right one was red and watery with irritation. Kikyou watched in fascination as she deliberately put her finger on the eye itself.

"What?" she almost laughed. "What is going on?"

Something happened. The woman pulled something away, rubbed her eye again, and when she looked back at the mirror, the left eye was still a muted brown but the right eye was as scarlet as a new plum.

The onlookers in the Hyouden were speechless.

The woman did something similar to the other eye and then they both matched again, only scarlet instead of brown. She pulled her hair away from her face and Kikyou was shocked to see an ear that was unmistakably pointed.

"She is a demon!"

"It's Kagura!" Kagome cried. "Holy hell, it's Kagura!"

Kikyou stared at the demon in the other place.

"Are you sure?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

"That's her alright," Kagome said. "Though, how she got through the well I just can't imagine!"

Kagura, meanwhile, was staring at the mirror, not seeing them, but not looking at herself anymore either. Suddenly she began searching the dresser again. She picked up something small and shiny, with a red tip. Lifting her hand, Kagura made a few marks, like lines of red paint, on the surface of the glass. Then she stopped and wiped the marks away, moved to the other side of the mirror, and started again. With painstaking care, she made each slow mark.

"She is writing something, she must be writing it backwards, from her own view," Kikyou pointed at the glass.

The three of them watched the slow and methodical progress of Kagura's work. At last, she stopped, stared at the message for a long time, swallowed hard and backed away, hanging her head. The message on the mirror read:

SOUTA SAFE

FUTURE UNWRITTEN

KANNA KEY

GUARD RIN

WE LOVE YOU

The mirror went black, and Kikyou saw that she was looking at her own pale and drawn face. The room reflected was the room around her, empty except for Kagome and Sesshoumaru.

Kagome stayed on the floor, still looking at the mirror, and for a long time would not say anything.

"I don't understand any of this," she murmured at last. "How did Kagura get through the well? Why _would_ she go? Why did she say 'Souta is safe', and not my mother? What is she trying to tell us about Kanna and Rin? For that matter, does she even know she is talking to us? And what does she mean by 'We'?"

Kikyou could not think of anything to say. To her surprise, it was Sesshoumaru who spoke.

"It is indeed a mystery. However, I could guess at the answer to two of your questions."

Kagome looked up at him.

"You said the well was a path to your era, which is in the same world as mine, but at least several centuries in the future."

Kagome nodded.

"Kagura is a demon. If you truly separated her from Naraku, she would be long-lived. She did not, I believe, go through the well."

It took a few moments for the implication to even reach Kikyou. Kagome's eyes widened.

"As for her own state of mind, or knowledge, she must know that she is communicating to us, and to you in particular. Not only does she have knowledge of past events, and thus likely knows that you are here at this time and about the phenomenon of the mirror, but also you are the only one to need a communication about your younger sibling."

Kagome's hand covered her mouth..

"As for your other questions, it may be a considerable time before we know, if we live to ever find out."

"Well, wait a minute," Kikyou stood up. "If Kagura is there, in the future, writing to us because she lived to do so, then surely that means we will defeat Naraku. If he wins against us, it is inconceivable that he would let her live."

"Though unlikely, Kagura may well be on the run," Sesshoumaru responded. "And even if she is not, even if Naraku is dead in that future, even if all that you hope for comes to pass," he looked Kikyou full in the face, "it does not then mean that anyone else will survive."

"I suppose that is true," Kikyou looked away.

"Besides," Kagome added, wiping her face, "Kagura made a point of telling us that the future is unwritten."

"But—

"Just because _that_ Kagura lived a certain path, doesn't mean that that path is certain for us. We may yet change it, changing, or even erasing, her existence."

Kikyou knitted her brow. "But…"

"I know," Kagome laughed. "Time travel is a tricky business, Nee-chan. Take it from me."

Kikyou looked at her in surprise.

"What?" Kagome returned the look.

"It is nothing," Kikyou shook her head. "We should eat. Would you like some tea, my lord?"

Sesshoumaru must have felt that his interest in the matter had ended, because he had left the room without them noticing.

"That one," Kikyou muttered, "is going to be trouble for us."

"No doubt," Kagome agreed. "No doubt."

"We must keep a watch on this mirror," Kikyou said.

Kagome nodded again. "I'll check it often. What do you think? What could cause the connection to happen?"

"After everything that has happened to me," Kikyou answered, "I could not even venture a guess, but I am not surprised."

Kikyou did not take her eyes off the mirror for some time, but she was not trying to figure out the mystery, nor was she thinking of the other place that Kagome called home. She was remembering Sesshoumaru, looking down at the crying Kagome, with his inscrutable expression.

The next morning, Sesshoumaru believed he knew precisely where he had gone wrong, after all. What was more, he knew just what to do about it.

In the time since Kagome's death and subsequent resurrection, he had discovered by chance that he could sleep in peace again. He no longer beheld the swirling stardust of the infinite when he closed his eyes. He no longer plummeted into the freezing emptiness of the black cosmos when he tried to sleep. It occurred to him that this was a reward for his complicity.

How it filled him with a blind, shaking rage! Sesshoumaru of the West had had enough.

That was how Kagome found herself standing outside the Hyouden's back door, in the wan light of a winter morning. Kikyou, Kohaku, and Kirara stood with her. They carried hastily packed bags of scant provisions.

"I think you're making a mistake," she tried to pursued him.

Sesshoumaru was not interested in talking. He did not budge an inch, planting his feet firmly in front of the house and giving her only a flinty gaze. Jaken and Rin stood near him, wringing their hands and worrying their lips.

Most of all, they were all surprised. Without warning, Sesshoumaru had roused them all just before dawn and let them know, in no uncertain terms, that he was being generous in allowing them to leave with their lives. Kagome could only stand there and argue, and splutter, and even threaten, but Kikyou had had the sense to gather some provisions and get Kohaku and Kirara safely out the door.

So it was that they all stood in the dirt of the dead garden, a good twelve feet between them and the implacable demon. Kagome gazed at him for some time in the silence, but Sesshoumaru's expression did not change.

"Fine," she said at last. "I don't need you anyway."

Even that did not elicit a response. Hoping it was for the last time, Kagome turned her back on him. Seeing it inspired a secret rage inside Sesshoumaru, but he swallowed it and remained immobile and incomprehensible. Kagome walked away, avoiding the eyes of her friends.

"Come on," she said to them. "Everything will be fine."

She stopped, and stood still again. Her eyes widened and her face paled.

"Kagome-sama," Kohaku whispered. "What is it?"

"Do you see that?"

Kohaku and Kikyou looked at the path before them.

"Yes," Kikyou said in a low voice. "I see it."

"What is it?" Kohaku asked.

"A ghost," Kagome answered.

Sesshoumaru heard the conversation of course, but he refused to listen to it, and he did not see what they saw. He only saw that she stopped and was still. Then Kagome turned her head and shot a look at him over her shoulder.

He knew this to be a sign that she was not leaving.

_Now what?_ he asked himself.

He did not move.

"Sesshoumaru," she said in a loud voice, "I cannot leave here, and I won't leave here. Whether you believe me or not, it is for the good of everyone, including you."

Rin and Jaken cast nervous glances between the tall demon and the slight girl. Sesshoumaru's expression did not change.

"The matter is not one for debate, Miko," he said in a flat tone.

She dropped her bag to the ground. She shook her head and spread her hands.

"I am sorry. I know that this is hard for you. It's unfair. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to. I'm not exactly in love with you, either."

His eyes narrowed.

"Leave now," he commanded.

"No."

A toxic star of green flame appeared at the tip of his right hand, but Kagome did not move. With a slight flick of his wrist, a line of poison fire snapped at her feet, like an angry snake.

Kikyou's breathing quickened, her heart pounded, and she marveled once again at her mortal housing, even as her power grew and recoiled inside her. Less than fourteen feet away, Jaken could hear the two powers growing in the air, meeting and pushing against each other, one like a song echoing in a seashell, the other like the buzzing of the sun. He took a step back.

Sesshoumaru's wrist flicked again. This time, the bright serpent leapt up and by instinct Kagome threw her hands into the air. The toxic rope hit her right wrist and wrapped around it. She grit her teeth as drops of dark blood splattered the dirt. With a sharp cry, Kikyou reached forward.

"Stay back!" Kagome yelled.

Kikyou froze, staring at her.

Blood ran down Kagome's arm, but she took hold of the poison rope and pulled on it. It began to turn a rosy color, but only where it touched her.

"Well?" she challenged. "What next?"

"Do you imagine that you are winning?" he asked. "That I cannot kill you?"

"I don't know," she said, not taking her eyes from his. "_Can_ you murder me, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru's placid façade fell away and the glare he gave her was raw and naked. He believed that he had never hated anyone so much.

"Kagome," Kikyou said. "Stop this. We can just go."

Kagome turned her head slightly.

"You saw her," she said over her shoulder. "You saw what she meant. We can't go."

"To whom are you referring?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"It doesn't matter," Kagome answered.

She opened her hand, and the line of fire withdrew, only to reappear again at the tip of his fingers. He saw her push back her shoulders, take a deep breath, and clinch her fist, waiting for the next blow. A thought, unbidden, came to him, that she was facing him down with the same unbreakable nerve that she had used against Naraku more than half a year ago.

_It has come to this_, he thought. _I have made this._

"_I do my best but I'm made of mistakes."_

_Damn it._

Near him, someone moved; it was Rin. She left his side and placed herself between him and Kagome.

He only glanced at her.

"Please, Sesshoumaru-sama, I beg you. For your own sake, don't!"

"You forget yourself Rin," he said. "I have never asked for your company or your counsel."

Rin looked away, and drew her hands up to her chest.

"Oh," she murmured.

Kagome looked at her, than back to Sesshoumaru, her eyes icy.

"Don't pay any attention to him, Rin-chan," she said. "He's just mad at me, and taking it out on everybody."

Sesshoumaru did not respond, not even with a glance.

"Just like Inuyasha," she added with a spiteful hiss.

He shot her a look of pure poison then, but quickly tore his eyes away, as if bored.

"I will not repeat myself," he said.

Kagome stayed where she was, and a silence descended on them. Rin turned her back on him and bowed her head.

_She will leave,_ he thought, _but that is my choice._

Kikyou spoke again, cracking the silence with a sudden, startling voice.

"No one said it would be easy."

Sesshoumaru heard her, he felt the words brush against his chest and knew them for all the truth they carried, all the hope that waited for him. But that hope was on the other side of an insurmountable barrier, unrelenting, even to him. He looked across the dead garden and into Kagome's eyes for the first time that morning.

_I do my best but I'm made of mistakes._

He raised his hand.

_Take it away, I never had it anyway._

"What is that?" Kohaku's voice was alarmed.

The six of them found themselves standing still as statues on that winter morning, their faces upturned to the sky. For a second, Sesshoumaru thought it was snowing, and he was mystified that he had not sensed it coming.

But the soft, feathery touch that kissed his face was not that of snowflakes. They stood in a shower of purple flower petals. The little pieces, as deep and vibrant as a stormy sunset at sea, came down from the cloudless sky and were already covering their toes and sandals.

Kagome stretched out her uninjured hand.

"Umm…Kikyou? Do you see flower petals…coming from the sky?"

"Yes."

Kagome sighed. "Thank goodness."

"What's happening?" Kohaku demanded.

"I have no idea," Kikyou said, her voice hushed in wonder. "They are irises."

"Ayame," Kagome whispered.

Sesshoumaru looked up at her sharply.

"Was that her name?"

Full of confusion and a vague fear, Kagome stared at him, uncomprehending.

"Ah…Ayame was a wolf demoness," she stammered. "She was…I knew her, when she was alive. Did you?"

"No," he answered, looking back at the numinous shower.

He sighed, and bowed his head.

"That's it then," he said. "I see."

The others exchanged nervous, perplexed glances.

"I do my best, but I'm made of mistakes."

Kagome's eyes widened in shock.

"What?" she gasped.

As suddenly as it had appeared, the iris rain was over, though the petals were as deep as their ankles and covered all the land that they could see. Still turning over this phenomenon in her mind, and utterly mystified by the change in Sesshoumaru, Kagome's thoughts were interrupted.

"Tamotsu-sama is returning," Kikyou told them.

A second later, Kagome sensed him as well, and then he was there, standing beside Rin. His hair was windblown and his shabby clothing was covered in dark blood stains.

"What's going on?" he demanded. "What's with the flowers?"

"We…we're not sure," Kagome stammered.

"Why's everybody standing around out here in the cold?"

No one answered.

"Are you feeling better?" he turned to Rin. "Are you really well enough to be out here?"

Rin's mouth opened, but she seemed incapable of answering. She stared at him vacantly, her eyes drifting back to Sesshoumaru.

"What's going on here?" Tamotsu demanded again.

"Ah!" he cried. "You're wounded!"

He took Kagome's right hand and studied it for a moment, then threw a venomous look over his shoulder at his cousin.

"I see," he said.

Sesshoumaru did not respond.

"We'll talk about this later," Tamotsu told him. "There's no time now."

"What's the matter?" Kohaku asked him.

"There is an army of Tsuchigumo headed this way," he announced. "Not the rabble of vermin we've been fighting, but an organized army, captained by giant ogres, thousands of them. They are heading right for this door, and will be here by nightfall."

[End of Chapter 28]

[Next chapter: The Caverns]

Author's notes: Longest chapter EVER. Good gracious! Only two left to go for Book Two!


	29. The Caverns

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Caverns**

"_The speaking of any word is futile unless there are other words, words that are unspoken." –Gene Wolfe_

Rage and joy are strange companions.

Shippou could feel the presence of Inuyasha as they flew back to the caverns. Hell, he could _feel_ the touch of the hanyou's very skin. As they drew closer to their destination, his nose picked up the traces of Miroku and Sango, mixed in with numerous humans and demons. He could still smell the blood of the Tsuchigumo, and somewhere to the south he sensed the presence of demons he did not know.

Being close to Inuyasha again, the thought of seeing Sango's face and hearing Miroku's voice, made Shippou's soul quake with an unbridled joy, a feeling like he was going to explode. But, on the other hand…

_God damn it_, he thought, _so much blood!_

His claws still ached to kill. Something about seeing Inuyasha again set his mind flaming. He could not quite work it out.

He dropped Inuyasha on the ground outside the cave mouth and came down as himself. The quiet was surreal, for a place overflowing with wounded refugees. Above them the cold stars winked and danced just as they had six months ago, a year ago, five years ago, as if nothing had happened.

_As if nothing's happened!_

Shippou stood for a long time, his knees shaking, his head low, and his fists clenched.

"You've grown," was all Inuyasha said.

Shippou could say nothing.

"What's the matter, kid?"

Shippou raised his head to glare at him. Inuyasha returned the look with deliberate pugnacity.

"So, what…you're mad at me, right? If you've got something to say, then say it!"

But Shippou choked on the words. Inuyasha stood there in the dark with his sword hanging at his hip, wearing the same red robe and hakama as before, not even all that worse for wear. He had the look of a man who expects to be whipped, and has accepted it.

"M—Miroku and Sango are here?" Shippou asked, and then berated himself for not saying something better.

"Yeah, they're inside. Least they were, earlier today."

"So, they've been with you? All this time?"

Inuyasha shook his head. "It's only been a few days since I found them."

"And Kagome-chan?" Shippou asked with his heart lying on his tongue.

"Not yet".

Shippou sighed and lowered his head, which felt twice as heavy as normal.

"Don't worry," Inuyasha told him. "We're gonna find her, soon."

They were silent for some time.

"So…you were alone then?"

"For some time, I was. There are others, though. You'll see. Come on inside."

Shippou tried to look at him. "Inuyasha…I…"

His poor throat stopped working. He looked down again at his bloody hands and feet.

"Come on," Inuyasha said again, taking hold of his shoulder. "Things are gonna get better now, kiddo."

Shippou tried to smile as he followed the half-demon into the fire-lit caverns.

"We've all got a lot of catching up to do," Inuyasha said as they walked in. "I for one, would like to know how you go so strong!"

This time, Shippou found that he could smile, if only a little.

"We need to take a look at that wound, too," Inuyasha said.

For a moment, Shippou had no idea what he was talking about. Then he brushed his fingers against his temple and winced. The spot was tender, caked in dried blood, and it felt like a rock the size of an egg was trapped under his skin.

"It's alright," he said. "I can hardly feel it."

"Shippou-chan!"

Shippou turned and saw the most beautiful sight he had seen in months. Sango, wrapped in layers of drab, peasant cloths, with her long hair held in a braid down her back, ran toward him, her face flushed and eyes wide.

"Shippou-chan!" she cried again, falling into him and laughing. "How wonderful! Thank goodness you're alright!"

Her scent, as familiar and safe as home baked bread, filled his head and his throat. His chest constricted. She pulled away and looked into his face.

"How did you get here?" she asked, breathlessly searching his face. "Where have you been?"

She touched his bright hair.

"Ah, yeah," he laughed, his voice shaking only a little. "I guess I haven't had time to trim it."

"You've gotten so big, Shippou-cha…Shippou-kun," she smiled at him, and a great tear formed on her lashes and fell heavily.

He only smiled.

"Yes, that is amazing."

Shippou looked up into Miroku's face. He was also wearing peasant cloths, but otherwise appeared the same. He even had his jangling, clinking staff.

"How on earth did you manage it?" the monk asked, smiling.

Shippou could not think of an answer.

"It's great to see you two again," he said instead. "I…

His throat clenched and he tasted tears on his tongue, so he stopped talking. He looked around and saw that the caves were full of terrified people, many of them wounded.

"There are so many people in here," he murmured.

"More than you might think," Miroku said. "The caverns wind deep into the mountains, and people have been pouring into them for hours."

"They came from a battle, by the river," Sango told him. "Did you see it?"

The question required a week's answer or none at all, so Shippou only nodded dazedly.

A man came up them, filthy with mud and blood, wild-eyed and panting.

"Shippou-sama, Shippou-sama!" he cried.

Sango and Miroku turned around in confusion.

"What is it?" Shippou answered.

"It's Norio-san," the man croaked, gasping and pulling at Shippou's coat. "He's dying!"

Shippou's jaw set, and his hardened.

"Take me to him," he said harshly.

As he started to move away, following the stranger, he hesitated for a second and turned back, grabbing Sango's hand and squeezing it once. Then he was gone, leaving them staring after him in amazement.

"Inuyasha," Sango murmured. "What's going on?"

"Let's go find out," he said, nodding his head in the direction Shippou had gone.

The three of them followed the young fox demon deeper into the torch-lit tunnel. When they caught up to him, he was kneeling next to a man who was sitting with his back against a burgeoning of the cave wall. The man was fairly young, with sharp features and long, black hair that he wore clasped at the nape of his neck. His face was devoid of any color and his eyes wandered back and forth, sometimes rolling up into his head. His entire left side was soaked in blood.

Shippou was holding the man's hand.

"Norio-san," he called. "Norio-san, can you hear me?"

The man gave no indication that he could.

"What has happened here?"

Shippou looked up and saw a young woman standing over them. She was rather ordinary looking, with straight, dark hair that just touched her shoulders, but she was dressed in leather and furs from head to toe.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

"My name is Eri," she answered. "I tend the sick, as best I can, anyway."

"His arm is hurt," Shippou pointed.

The girl bent down to examine the poor man. Her expression was grave.

"This arm is worse than hurt," she announced. "It is irreparable."

"What do you mean?" Shippou asked, alarmed.

"I mean that it will only get worse. As the tissue and bone die and decay, it will take his life with it."

Shippou gaped at her. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

"Of course there is. It has to come off."

"Off?" he gasped. "You mean…"

He trailed off, his mouth still open and his hands shaking.

"Shippou-sama," the wounded man whispered.

Shippou turned back to him.

"Don't try to talk, Norio-san, we're gonna get you better in no time."

The man weakly shook his head.

"I can tell the end is near for me," he said. "I will go to a place of warriors. I hope I will not be ashamed."

"Norio-san, don't say that! You're the bravest man I know!"

The man gave a slight smile. "Shippou-sama…"

His head rolled back.

"Norio-san!" Shippou cried.

The girl lifted Norio's lids and peered into his eyes.

"We will have to hurry," she said. "As it is, it is doubtful he will survive the procedure. The longer we wait, the worse are his chances."

She turned around. "Has anyone seen Kouga-kun?" she asked.

"Kouga?" Shippou was startled. "You know Kouga?"

Inuyasha stepped forward. "What do you need?"

"Someone who is able to cut it off. They must be precise, and strong, and with a blade as sharp as possible, of course." The girl fretted. "Damn. I wish I had more…more everything!"

"I'll do it," Inuyasha said, putting his hand on his sword.

"Not with that rusted thing, you won't," Eri retorted.

"Trust me," he said.

"No, Inuyasha," Shippou stood up, putting his hands on his chest. "I'll do it."

"You sure as hell won't!" Inuyasha protested.

"I'm strong enough!" he shot back. "He's _my_ soldier. I'm responsible for him."

"Are either of you qualified to do this?" Eri interrupted. "It's not like hacking down a tree limb, you know."

"Wait for just one minute," Miroku spoke up.

He turned and walked further into the caves.

"Where's he going?" Inuyasha asked Sango.

She shrugged and spread her hands, then she turned to Shippou.

"Shippou-kun," she said. "I don't understand. How do you know this man?"

"It's a very long story, Sango," Shippou sighed. "I hope we can all sit down soon and go over it all, but not now, OK?"

Another girl dressed in furs, this one with ropes of long, braided hair, approached them.

"Eri-chan, I think the worse of it is over. Most are settled…or dead already."

Shippou noticed the girl's hands were smudged with blood.

"There is one," she added. "A female with a broken leg. I think she was involved in the fighting. The men seem to show her some deference."

"That's Kagura!" Shippou exclaimed.

"Kagura?" Sango repeated, amazed. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes," Shippou answered. "I was there when it happened. Kouga was supposed to bring her back here."

"He came in with her," the long-haired girl confirmed. She indicated the caverns. "She is back there."

"Otherwise, she is alright?" he asked.

"I think so. She was asking for someone named 'Shippou'."

"That's me," he cried. Then he looked back to Norio.

"Pleased to meet you," the young woman murmured.

Shippou turned back to her.

"Ah…I'm sorry. I am Shippou," he bowed briefly to her.

"Yuka," she said, with an incline of her head.

"Are you a friend of Kouga's, too?"

"Something like that."

"I didn't know Kouga had any human friends, besides Kagome."

"You know Kagome?" she asked sharply.

"Yeah," he answered slowly, somewhat mystified. "Very well. I used to travel with her, and that half-demon and woman standing there, and—

"A monk," the girl supplied. "His name was…Miroku."

"Yeah," Shippou looked at her closer. "Who are you, exactly?"

"He's over here."

It was Miroku's voice. He had returned, followed by an older man of stocky build, with a scarred face. A young woman walked behind him, pale, with straight brown hair cut bluntly above the shoulders. Behind her followed an even younger girl, no more than twelve of thirteen years old.

Eri looked at the newcomers and then to Miroku.

"I think Kyotou-sama can help," he said to her.

"You need an amputation?" the man called Kyotou asked her.

"Yes," she replied. "Can you do it?"

He nodded, his face grim. "I've done it before, a few times, and seen it many."

"Some luck at last," Eri said. "Now if we only had something to cleanse the site. Something to give him for pain would be too much to hope for, I suppose."

"How long can you wait?" Inuyasha asked her.

"No more than half an hour."

He nodded and abruptly ran into the caves.

Exasperated, and near witless with confusion, Sango spread her hands.

"Where the devil is _he_ going?"

Miroku raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

Less than a minute later, Inuyasha appeared again, this time running toward the mouth of the cave, flanked by a giant of a demon with long arms, a long face, and bulging blue eyes, who ran behind Inuyasha in earth-shaking strides. They were gone before anyone could say anything.

"Wait a minute," Shippou exclaimed. "Was that Jinenji?"

"He has been with Inuyasha for some time now," Miroku told him.

"What does that mean?" Eri asked.

"Well, if I had to guess," Miroku answered, "I would say that they are going to try to find medicine. Jinenji-san is very knowledgeable when it comes to medicinal plants."

"Oh," she said, turning back to Norio. "That's useful."

Kyotou had found a spot to sit down out of the way, and he began the grim work of sharpening his blade. Shippou, meanwhile, was looking at the women who had come with him.

"Don't I know you?" he said to the older one.

She peered at him, narrowing her eyes, but shook her head. "I don't think—

"This is Momiji-sama," Miroku said to him. "You remember the two priestesses that Tsubaki tried to use against us, that time."

"Really?" he stared at her. "That's incredible. How have you been?"

She furrowed her brow doubtfully. "You're…you're the young kitsune!"

He nodded.

"My goodness," she murmured. "You've gotten so big."

"Yes," he said. "Everyone says that."

She indicated the young girl. "This is Suzi…ah, Suzume. She is a training miko under my care."

Shippou nodded at the girl, who bowed to him, and he looked at Sango and Miroku.

"Momiji-sama took care of us," Sango explained. "After…you know. Her sister, Botan-sama, is actually the one who found Inuyasha, and nursed him back to health, from what I understand."

"Speaking of," Momiji said, "Suzi-chan, why don't you find Botan and stay with her? See if she needs your help with any of the wounded."

Suzi looked at the wounded man, then nodded and returned to the tunnels.

"Don't you think that's a little beyond belief?" Shippou asked.

Miroku and Sango looked at him with perplexed expressions.

"Momiji finds you, Botan finds Inuyasha, who later picks up Jinenji. Here we are in the caves with Kouga, and somewhere in here is Taroumaru."

"Taroumaru?" Sango asked.

"He was that brat we saved from the fake water god. It was a long time ago."

Sango's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, I remember that."

"He's in here somewhere," Shippou chewed his lip. "At least, I hope so."

"Well, before we go any further," Miroku said, "you should know that Nobunaga and Nazuna are here as well. Nobunaga you wouldn't remember, but Inuyasha and Kagome-sama knew him. Nazuna…Inuyasha says you were with him when he helped her fight off some spider demons."

Shippou shook his head. "This is getting too confusing."

"It gets better," the nurse said suddenly.

Shippou looked up at her.

"I grew up with Kagome-chan," she told him. "I knew her when she was a little girl."

Shippou pursed his lips and furrowed his brow. "Wait…that doesn't make any sense."

"This girl here, Yuka, she is the same. Kagome-chan's mother is here as well."

Shippou paled visibly. "What?" he exclaimed. "That's impossible!"

"We said the same thing," Sango said. "But Inuyasha, who has met them on the other side, has confirmed that it is true."

Shippou shook his head. "All of this is too much. I can't think of all this stuff right now."

"I still want to know how you know this man," Sango said to him. "What have you been doing all this time? And what was all that talk about Kagura? Do you mean—

"Yes," he cut her off, "the same Kagura. But she doesn't belong to _him_ anymore, understand? I found her. I kept her alive, and in turn she has saved my life many times. Her leg was broken because she was trying to save me."

Sango and Miroku were speechless. Eri handed Shippou a cloth that was soaked in cold water, which he pressed to Norio's face.

"Time is running out," she told him.

"Just a few more minutes," he said. "Inuyasha…in the end, he always comes through."

Shippou looked up at Yuka.

"Could I ask you for a favor?"

Yuka, looking at the wounded man and Kyotou's sword, paled visibly. She nodded, chewing one of her fingernails.

"Please go back to Kagura, let her know I'm OK, and that I will go to her as soon as I can. Please."

Yuka nodded again, turned, and left.

"I'm going too," Sango said to Miroku, "I'm not needed here and I am very curious to meet Shippou's Kagura."

Miroku nodded, but remained behind as she followed Yuka into the caverns.

Momiji knelt next to Eri.

"If there is anything I can do to help you…I know I may not look it right now, but I am a priestess."

Eri nodded, but did not take her eyes off of Norio. "Thank you."

"How did you get here?" Shippou asked her in a quiet voice.

Eri's expression darkened.

"A monster, a demon, came and took us away. He captured and tortured us."

"You mean yourself, Yuka, and Kagome's mother?"

"Yes, and one other, a girl named Ayumi, who has fared worse than the rest of us and is resting now."

Shippou pressed his lips together.

"What happened to the demon?"

"We don't know. He left us one day and didn't come back. When we were brave enough, we tried to make our way back home. Kouga-kun found us in the wilderness."

Shippou looked back to Miroku.

"Again, don't you think that's a little peculiar?"

Miroku shook his head.

"Not anymore, I don't."

"Hey, we're back."

Inuyasha walked into the circle of light, followed by the lumbering giant, Jinenji. The horse demon went to Eri.

"You are the doctor?" he asked.

She looked startled.

"Well, no, I'm not a…ah, yeah, sure. That's me."

He held out his hand and bowed his head.

"If you please," he said.

She reached out and took something from him. When she opened her hand, Shippou saw that she was holding something wet and green, which looked like a clump of wet grass.

"You must make him eat that," Jinenji rumbled.

"All of it?"

"It is a small dose," he answered. "Relatively. But I dare not give him more, or he may not wake up."

Eri nodded. She pulled on the injured man's jaw and slowly pried it open. She put small pieces of the glob on his tongue, then tilted his head.

"I hope he doesn't choke on it," she murmured to herself.

"What now?" Shippou asked her after she was done.

"We'll wait, a few minutes or so, to see if it affects him."

At first, nothing happened. Norio slumped, with his chin on his chest, with Shippou's anxious eyes on his.

"Shippou-sama!" the poor man exclaimed suddenly. "What's happening?"

Shippou looked at Eri, who shook her head in perplexity and looked back to Jinenji.

"It is not uncommon for there to be a period of sharp lucidity, in the beginning," he said. "It won't last long."

"It's going to be alright, Norio-san," Shippou took the man's hand. "I'm going to stay right here."

"Am I dying?" Norio whispered.

"No, I won't let you die," Shippou put his other hand on his forehead. "But…but Norio-san, you're badly injured. We have to remove your arm, understand?"

Shippou could see the whites of Norio's eyes get bigger.

"My…my arm?" the man's voice squeaked with terror.

"My son," Miroku knelt beside the man. "I know I don't look it, but I am a monk. Let me offer your soul comfort in this dark hour."

Norio looked up at him with desperate eyes, saw his monk's staff gleam in the torch light, and nodded. Shippou looked at Miroku for a moment, who returned the look with a grave expression. He moved to allow the monk to take Norio's hand.

"Pray with me, monk," Norio whispered.

"Life is a flame before the wind. The future life is the all-important thing," Miroku said in a solemn tone. "Goodness is the return of goodness. He who has forbearance brings benefit to others as well as to himself. He is also treading on the path to enlightenment."

Norio repeated the phrases in a hoarse whisper, and their intonations echoed in the cavern, along with steely hiss of Kyotou's sharpening strap. In short time his eyes began to roll back in his head and his voice faded.

"Where is she?" he whispered. "I believe she was just here, just now."

"We have to act now," Eri said. "I think it's working."

Miroku and Shippou laid the man down on his back, as gently as possible, and looked to Kyotou.

"Let's get this over with," the burly man grumbled, standing up.

Kagura sat with her back to the damp, chill wall of the cave. There were people all around her, some sitting, some prostrate with exhaustion and injury, others moving by, deeper into the caverns. The light of torches danced and flickered, casting strange shadows on the gleaming walls.

She had managed to get this far on her own, despite her leg, which felt as though something had chewed it off. She cast frequent glances down at it, to reassure herself that it was still there. There it lay, twisted and useless.

When she had dragged herself into the caves, following Kouga, plenty of people were already there. She recognized most of them as her own army, but she could smell the presence of others, people she knew. As soon as she sat down and caught her breath again, she knew that Miroku and Sango were somewhere nearby.

There were also some strange people that she did not know. A couple of girls, human but dressed as wolf-demons, were moving about the tunnels, handing out skins filled with water and bandaging wounds. One of them, with hair almost to her waist, came to Kagura when her eyes landed on her. She knelt beside her.

"Are you injured?" she asked.

"It's nothing," Kagura answered. "Just my leg."

She glanced down at it.

"I'm not a physician," she admitted, "but it looks broken."

Kagura only nodded.

"You must be in some pain," the girl said. "I will get some help for you."

"It's nothing," Kagura repeated. "Worry about the humans."

The girl froze, and Kagura saw that she had not noticed, in the dim light, that she was not human.

"I see," she said after a moment.

She rose to leave.

"Wait!" Kagura called. "If you see Shippou, please tell him where I am. I need to see him."

"I don't know who that is," the girl replied.

"He's hard to miss," Kagura smiled wearily. "He's a young fox demon with bright, red hair. And he's the other captain of this army."

"I'll see what I can do," she answered, before turning to leave.

Kagura waited, sitting quite still to avoid disturbing the leg, and listening to the trickle of water, the whisper of air through cracks and fissures in the rock, the moans of the wounded. It all mixed together into a mournful song in her ears.

_Holy hell_, she thought, _so many…dead!_ Just that morning she and Shippou had lounged lazily in their warm tent. That now seemed like days, weeks ago. She realized in that solitary moment that in the past few weeks, the past few months, despite the bloodshed and losses, she had always felt that things were going well. After all, she was free of Naraku, she was getting stronger every day. She was sure that somehow, it would all work out in the end. Now the truth was unavoidable. Things had gone to shit.

_What if…?_

She heard footsteps and looked up. The girl had returned, but was followed by someone else. As they came into the light, Kagura almost laughed when she saw it was Sango.

"Long time, no see, Slayer," she called. "I thought I smelled you in here."

Sango stood over her, her expression baffled.

"It is you," she murmured. "I don't think I really believed it."

"Shippou-san says to tell you he is well," the other girl reported. "And that he will come to you as soon as he can."

Kagura nodded.

"I'm surprised you're not with him," she said to Sango.

"He is preoccupied. My husband is with him."

Kagura looked up, surprised.

"Oh. You must mean that monk," she said. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Sango answered simply. "How have you been?"

Kagura almost laughed again. She shook her head and looked around.

"You can see, not so good."

"I see your leg is broken."

"Yeah, and it hurts like a son of a bitch, too."

Sango examined the leg, giving it a slight press, which made Kagura wince.

"I do know something about broken bones," she said. "This isn't too bad. I can set it right now, if you think you can bear it."

"It will hurt?"

"Quite a bit," Sango answered. "If you want, we can send Jinenji out for more medicine."

Kagura took a deep, shuddering breath, then shook her head.

"Let's just be done with it," she said. "It'd be better if Shippou weren't here."

"Oh?"

"He gets upset when I'm hurt."

Sango gazed at her, her expression mysterious.

"Very well," she said after a moment.

The other girl was still standing behind her.

"Are you friends with Kagome-chan?" she asked suddenly.

Kagura looked up at her, then looked away, her brow furrowed.

"Kagome and I were—are—not close. But the last time I saw her, she saved my life."

Sango's expression clouded, and her hands grew still.

The long-haired girl sat down next to Kagura, taking one hand in her own and putting her other arm around Kagura's shoulder. For a moment, Kagura flinched, and it occurred to her that she had never been close to anyone, in tenderness, except Shippou, and even that was limited. She swallowed hard.

"My name is Yuka," the girl said.

"I'm going to use the wall to brace you," Sango said. "It will be quite painful, but quick, and then it'll be over."

Kagura licked her lips and nodded.

"On three."

Kagura scream once, so loud that those nearby, who were still conscious, turned their heads. Yuka let her squeeze her hand. Kagura yelled out one, blistering epithet, and fell to panting.

"There," Sango said. "The worst is over. We just have to immobilize it."

"I have to tend to others," Yuka said.

Panting, Kagura nodded. "Thanks."

"Do you know who she is?" Kagura asked Sango after the girl was gone. "The way she's dressed…"

"Like a wolf demon, I know. From what I gather, she is one of Kagome-chan's childhood friends."

"Really?" Amazed, Kagura's eyes followed the girl.

"Apparently, some demon was able to go through the well—ah, do you know about that?"

"Yeah, Shippou told me."

"Well, used to be, only Kagome-chan and Inuyasha could go through, but this demon went through and kidnapped three girls and Kagome-chan's mother."

Kagura drew a sharp breath. "Was it Naraku?"

"We don't know, but I doubt it was him. It may have been one of his servants."

She looked closely at Kagura. "Come to think of it, you should talk to them about it. Maybe you'd know him."

Kagura responded by changing the subject.

"So, Kagome's mother is here?"

"That's what I've heard. Inuyasha said he's already seen her. She's around here somewhere."

"What happened to that demon?"

"No one knows," Sango answered. "The girls say that he just left them one day, in a cave somewhere, and never came back."

"If he _was_ a servant of Naraku, he must have been killed," Kagura said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Why else would he leave his charge?"

"_You_ turned your back on your master," Sango pointed out.

"I did, but there's a big difference. Someone came along to set me free. I could never have done it on my own."

Sango had nothing to say to that.

"Shippou!" Kagura cried.

Sango turned and saw that Shippou was coming toward them, walking into the lighted tunnel flanked by Inuyasha, Miroku, and Kouga. His face pale and his side covered in blood, he hurried to Kagura's side.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, but what about you?" she looked alarmed. "All that blood!"

"It's not mine." Shippou's eyes were dark and grim.

"What's the matter?"

He shrugged and looked away. Sango and the others, without thinking, began to pull back to a slight degree, giving the two space.

Kagura swallowed hard and lowered her head.

"We really messed up, huh?" she said in a low voice. "We tried so hard, and it was all for nothing."

Shippou sat down beside her, with his face towards the wall, brushing against her good leg.

"Yeah," he murmured. "I know."

"Hey," Inuyasha interrupted. "Don't say that! You two fought like hell. You did really good!"

Shippou turned on him.

"So what?" he demanded. "What's the use of fighting well? Who cares if everyone says we were brave and valiant? It won't bring any of those people back. We were responsible for them, and we failed them!"

Kagura tried to hide her face.

Inuyasha was taken aback and fell silent. Miroku let his staff lean against the wall and he sat down next to the pair, taking in a heavy sigh.

"Shippou, you don't know how it grieves my heart to hear your suffering. If anyone failed here, it is us. We led you to this place."

Shippou would not look him in the eye. Sango and Inuyasha stood by in a stilled silence.

"You were a child," he went on, "who followed us out of love, and loyalty, the noblest of reasons. The calamity that befell us was entirely of our making. Torn from us, and alone, you did the best you could, and it turned out better than anything the rest of us could do."

Kagura heard Shippou choke back a muffled sound, and she felt a peculiar tightening in her throat.

"Kagome risked everything for Kagura, and that would have meant nothing if not for you. The two of you saw these people in trouble, and you did your best to fight for them, and to give them a reason to fight for themselves. I tell you now Shippou, truly, that is better than anything I have ever done."

Shippou sniffed loudly, raised his head, and tried to smile.

"If all that's true," he said in a thick voice, "what does it mean now, that I am _so_ glad you guys are back!"

Miroku stared at him for a moment, then laughed. He reached out his hand and ruffled his hair.

"Your love and loyalty are still your noblest virtues."

"You did good, kid," Inuyasha said again.

"We shall call him, Shippou the Valiant," Sango announced, smiling.

"That sounds good to me," Kagura said with a strained voice.

Shippou blushed.

"Now that we've got that nonsense out of the way," Kouga spoke up gruffly. "We can get down to business."

"I'm a little incapacitated at the moment, Kouga," Kagura responded. "Sango went through all the trouble of setting the bone."

He gave her a startled look, then rolled his eyes.

"Pfft! Not you!" he waved her off. "I was talking about what we're all going to do next."

"There's really only one thing we need," Inuyasha answered.

He did not say what that one thing was, but he didn't have to. Others, people who had some stake in the matter, began to gather nearer from other parts of the caverns. Jinenji, Nazuna and Nobunaga stayed together as a group, and in another group were Momiji, Botan, Suzi, and Kyotou. They did not put in their opinion, however, but only listened.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" Shippou asked them.

"I have one, but it's a long shot," Inuyasha said.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's hard to explain, but for several reasons I'm beginning to think we ought to go to the Hyouden."

"The Hyouden?" Shippou was startled. "Sesshoumaru's place?"

Inuyasha looked at him. "You know it?"

"I know where it is. I saw it from the sky, a long time ago. We were going to go there but, well, we got sidetracked, as you can see."

"That's weird," Inuyasha murmured.

"You know," Kouga said, "I picked up Kagome's mother and the girls not far from there."

Everyone turned to him in surprise.

"If that's true," Kagura pursed her lips in thought, her eyes on the ceiling, "we can guess what might have happened to that demon."

"That's a good point," Inuyasha agreed. "If Sesshoumaru picked up the scent of a servant of Naraku on his land, he'd kill it for sure."

Sango sighed. "I hate all this speculation. The Hyouden is our only lead. Let's just decide to go there and be done with it."

"I still think we should proceed with caution in that area!" a little voice squeaked with fright.

Kagura raised her head. "What the hell was that?"

Inuyasha growled and picked something from his hair.

Kouga laughed. "I always said you were a flea-bitten mongrel!"

"Oh har-har," Inuyasha muttered.

"It's Myouga!" Shippou cried, getting to his feet.

"Who?" Kagura looked around.

"He's here," Inuyasha showed her a tiny speck between his fingers. "He's a flea demon, and an old servant of the family."

"So…" she said, "Kouga is right?"

Kouga laughed.

"Oh you people can kiss my—

"Hi Myouga-jii-chan!" Shippou smiled down at the tiny demon. "It's nice to see you again."

"Ah, Shippou-chan," the old flea said. "How it does my soul good to see you alive and well. And so tall, too!"

"You were saying, you don't think we should go the Hyouden?" Shippou asked.

"He's been barking up that tree since we picked him up last time," Inuyasha growled and shook the flea by his little coat.

"Ah! I just mean to be careful!" Myouga protested. "What about going to Midoriko's shrine? I still like that idea."

"Hmm," Kouga considered it. "I know for sure that the old priestess has something to do with all this."

"Just so!" Myouga exclaimed.

"But that's much further away," Sango argued. "The Hyouden is close, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Shippou said. "It's just over the hills, to the south."

"But Sango-chan, wouldn't you like to return to your old village again?" Myouga asked.

Inuyasha shook him again. "Don't go trying to pull on her heartstrings just to get your way, you old scoundrel."

"Oh, Inuyasha-sama, how you mistreat me!"

"Whatever," Inuyasha sighed and tossed the flea over his shoulder.

Miroku stretched and yawned.

"We can't do anything tonight, anyway," he said. "Everyone here is in dire need of rest."

"Speak for yourself," Kouga declared.

"OK, OK," the monk waved his hand, still yawning. "Everyone but Kouga."

"There are still wounded that need tending," Sango pointed out.

"Very well," Miroku sighed. "Let's spread out, do our best to help those that can be helped, then try to get some sleep. We can decided once and for all in the morning."

His tone, however, led many in attendance, Sango especially, to believe that he had already made up his mind on the matter.

It was difficult to tell the passage of time in the caverns, but Sango believed that only a few hours remained before dawn when she rose from her sleeping place beside Miroku and went in search for a place to relieve herself. It took some time to find a spot that was solitary. After, on a whim, she decided to go outside. The air in the caves was warm and close, now that they were packed with so many people. The thought of fresh, cold air on her face was inviting.

The air was cold, but not as biting has it had been in previous weeks, and the moon was almost full, washing the land in a bright paleness. Just beyond the mouth of the cave, she saw someone sitting with his shoulders hunched and his legs hanging over the ledge. The moonlight dyed his hair the color of blood.

"Shippou-kun?" she put his hand on his shoulder.

He jumped and looked up at her, and she saw that his eyes were burning and red.

"Why don't you rest?" she asked him.

He turned away.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

"You should go back to bed yourself," he told her. "You need rest more than I do, and it's cold out here."

"I've endured worse, and you know it."

He took in a deep, shuddering breath.

She sat down and put an arm around his shoulder. For a second, he pulled away.

"There's no one here," she said, looking into his green eyes.

_God,_ she thought,_ he really is still so young!_

Shippou's eyes widened, his mouth quivered, then he pulled her closer and buried his face in her chest, weeping and sobbing in heavy, cutting gasps of air.

She patted his back.

"There, there," she whispered. "I know. It's alright now."

Yuka wished hard to go back to sleep, but after some time surrendered to the understanding that sleep would not return. Yuka stepped away carefully to avoid waking Higurashi and her friends. Nearer the mouth of the cave, most people were awake and stirring, and she saw that outside the sun was already up. She could smell food cooking and realized that her stomach was empty.

"Morning," Kouga said to her. "Are the others still asleep?"

She nodded.

"Ah, well, let them get their rest. Here, take something to eat."

She took the food he offered her, some smoked meat on a couple of sticks, and she sat down near a fire to eat it. Having satisfied her hunger and thirst, she wondered if a bath was even a remote possibility.

Probably not. Heaven only knows what sort of water she might find, and where, not to mention it would likely be freezing. She sighed and comforted herself that no one else smelled any better than she did.

Yuka watched Inuyasha come to the fire, warm his hands, refuse food, and speak briefly with Kouga. He wore the same red clothes he had worn the first time she had seen him, years ago at Kagome's home, when she innocently believed he was just some teenage boy that Kagome liked, some thug from the rough streets of Tokyo. She almost laughed out loud at the memory.

"Where's Higurashi?"

His sudden, rough voice snapped her out of her reverie.

"She's still asleep," she answered in a tone more sullen than she meant to.

He started to turn away, but hesitated.

"Did Higurashi explain all this to you?"

Yuka put down her food.

"Explain?" she repeated, her expression perplexed. "What do you imagine she might be able to explain?"

He stared at her.

"Perhaps why a monster would come out of the Higurashi shrine? Wound, maybe kill, Souta, kidnap us, terrorize and torture us? How we might be able to get to a _past time and place_ by going through the well? How everything Kagome has ever said to us from the time she was fifteen was a lie?"

Yuka's voice rose higher with each question, and she found herself standing in front of him, with her fists clenched. Anger that had steeped in her soul since her days at the secretive shrine began to bubble to the surface like lava. Her face reddened with it.

"How would you suggest she might explain such things, Inu_yasha_?!"

"Hey!" he shouted back. "Get off my case! What do you want me to do about it? I am what I am and always have been. My destiny is what it is. I don't have to apologize for it to you. And Kagome wouldn't either, if she were here!"

"If she were here!" Yuka spat back at him. "But she isn't, is she? Weren't you suppose to take care of her?"

His expression was, for a fraction of a second, as though she had slapped him in the face. A terrible silence fell around them.

"Go to hell," he muttered, and stalked out of the cave.

"You really shouldn't have said that," Kouga told her.

"You're defending him?"

"You have no notion of what you're talking about. I'm the last to defend Inuyasha, but Kagome would be scandalized by your behavior."

Yuka glared at him, but he seem unperturbed.

"We will meet Kagome again," he said to her.

"Good!" Yuka retorted. "I will tell her the same thing, when I see her."

"I hope you're wrong about that."

Many people in the caverns slept through the day. Those who were more able-bodied assisted in gathering what supplies could be found in the hills, such as food, water, and fuel for fires. Jinenji and Nobunaga rose early and went out to forage for more medicine. Sango, Momiji, Botan, Suzi, Higurashi, and Yuka spent the better part of the day continuing to care for the wounded, under the general direction and instruction of Eri. She went from patient to patient with an even, if grave, expression, asking brief questions and giving crisp orders.

In the morning hours, Shippou tried to help them as best as he could, but by lunch time he was restless and announced he would go out and scout the area.

"We have a lot of men out there," he said. "I want to make sure everybody's alright."

Sango started to tell him to be careful, but checked her tongue.

Kagura was forbidden to move. She sat in the same place where she had slept, her expression growing more and more sullen throughout the day. When she heard that Shippou had left, she was outraged.

"Why does he get to leave?" she demanded.

"_He_ does not have a broken leg," Sango reminded her.

"Bah! My leg is fine. See?" she rapped on it a few times with her staff.

Her face turned red, then purple, while Sango kept a steady gaze on her.

"IIEEE!" she burst out finally.

Sango shook her head. "Just stay still, Kagura-san. Do it for Shippou-kun. He'll be worried, if you don't."

Kagura's face contorted with injured pride, but she said nothing.

Once, when Yuka happened by her, Kagura called out.

"It's Yuka, right?"

Yuka stopped. "Yes."

"Won't you come here for a moment?"

"Are you in pain?" Yuka walked toward her.

"No…well, yes, but that's OK. I just…" she sighed and dropped her arms.

"What is it?"

"I have to sit here, and there's no one around. I hate it."

"You're lonely?"

Kagura looked surprise.

"Umm…maybe," she muttered.

"Well, there's a lot of work to do, but I guess I deserve a break."

The young woman put down her basket and sat next to her.

For a minute or two they sat in a somewhat awkward silence.

"You said before that Kagome saved your life," Yuka said. "Would you explain that to me?"

Kagura chewed her lip.

"I don't know," she said, doubtful. "I don't know if they'd want me to—

"Please," Yuka touched her hand. "I want to hear it."

Kagura's eyes wandered to the girl's hands, which were red and raw from the cold and from so much washing. Grateful for the company and the ear, Kagura took a deep breath and told Yuka everything, much, much more than Higurashi would ever have been able to reveal. She explained her origins, her former master and what she knew of his past with Inuyasha, Kikyou, and, later, Kagome. Yuka questioned her closely about the matter between Inuyasha and Kikyou, but all Kagura could confirm was that they had been lovers in the past, that Naraku had tricked them into deceiving each other, which led to their demise, but, in one form or another, Kikyou walked the earth again.

"That explains certain things," Yuka murmured.

"What?"

"It's nothing. Please, continue."

Kagura told her, with honesty that shocked even herself, how she had originally delighted in her master's cruel machinations, and how she had regarded Inuyasha and Kagome as bitter enemies. Yuka listened to all this with a grave, intent expression, but she did not betray a hint of fear or disgust. Kagura explained how her thinking changed over time, how she grew close to the human boy, Kohaku (Sango's younger brother, she mentioned). She even delved into his sad history. She touched on the monk and his wind tunnel curse. She retold, with some bitterness, how the past five years became a repetition of the same useless defeats and empty victories. She explained how she had hoped that Inuyasha, or Sesshoumaru, or even Kouga would lead to her freedom.

"Who is Sesshoumaru?" Yuka interrupted her.

"He is Inuyasha's older half-brother," she explained. "Unlike Inuyasha, he is a full demon, and _very_ strong. He and Inuyasha do not care for each other at all."

"Why is that?"

Kagura chewed her lip for a moment. She remembered the last time she had seen Sesshoumaru, when she had saved Kohaku from him.

_But damn that was a long time ago._

"Sesshoumaru is very proud," she said. "He believes that demons are infinitely superior to everything else in creation, and he believes that he is superior to every other demon. It doesn't leave them much to talk about."

"I see."

"You've been fortunate to meet many demons who are friendly to humans, like Kouga. But if you should encounter Sesshoumaru, don't make any assumptions. He looks nice enough, he kind of looks like Inuyasha in some ways, but he can be very dangerous."

"I will remember that."

"You've heard the others mention the Hyouden?"

Yuka nodded.

"That is where he lives."

Yuka looked alarmed. "But, some of them want to go there! Is that wise?"

"I don't know," Kagura admitted. "I don't know what will happen. That's why I'm warning you. And of course, Sesshoumaru is nothing compared to Naraku, not because he is not as strong—I think he may be stronger—but Sesshoumaru lacks true malice. He's just proud and selfish."

Finally, she arrived at the point in her history when she last saw Kagome. She recounted her every step that day, from when she lost her temper at the Hyouden, to when she told Sango that Kohaku was dead. Kagura closed her eyes and described, in vivid detail, that last confrontation with Naraku, how he had come planning to kill her, how she heard Kagome screaming Kikyou's name, and how she woke up, weak, but free.

When she was finished, Yuka took a deep breath.

"Thank you, Kagura-san," she said. "I am very grateful to you for this information."

Yuka then looked around, somewhat dismayed.

"That took a lot of time," she said. "I really should get back."

"Yeah, you're right," Kagura said. "Thanks for keeping me company."

"No, thank you. I'll come back and check on you later."

Time began to crawl again after the girl was gone. Kagura sat in the still silence and went over her own story again and again, her head ringing with all the words she had poured forth. She regretted her openness, but only a little.

_That girl has been dragged into this_, she thought, _she deserves to know some truth._

Every time she stood up, dark spots danced before her eyes and for a moment, the walls, floor, and ceiling of the caverns blurred together and she couldn't tell up from down. Higurashi was exhausted.

Exhaustion was a good thing. Indeed, it was the best thing she had going at the moment. She went through the repetitive motions of tending to the wounded and preparing food in a numb daze. Eri had to correct her on several occasions, and Yuka must have asked her if she was alright more than a dozen times throughout the day.

Higurashi was absorbed in doubt and confusion. She often gazed at the wolf demons, the peasants, Inuyasha and the others, to remind herself that she really was in the feudal era.

_Am I dreaming? _

The days of the rain, when Yuka first came to sleep in Kagome's room, the phantom of the dog demon haunting the shrine with his heavy footfalls, the death of her father-in-law—these things receded in her memory down a hazy tunnel, into a dusty attic. Her mind ran over recent events again and again, desperate to find rhyme and reason, and more than once she saw in her mind her young son, prostrate on the ground, unconscious, or dead. This thought screeched through her mind again and again like a wailing ambulance, and she would flinch and gnash a scream behind her teeth. More than once she repressed the wild urge to put down everything and run off into the wild and make her way, somehow, to the well.

_I'd never get there_, she kept telling herself. She remembered what the dog-ghost had said to her.

_Mine will always look after yours._

"I must have faith," she murmured.

"What was that, Higurashi-san?" Ayumi asked her.

"Nothing, child, just thinking out loud."

Ayumi nodded absently and her eyes became distant again. She did not help with the food or the wounded, but spent her time sitting in silence by a small fire, as indifferent and remote as a satellite. It was a rare, brief moment when something drew her attention. The others did not attempt to engage her or to ask for her assistance.

"She is not well," Higurashi told a female wolf demon who inquired of her. "She needs her rest; let her be."

The wound on her hand was still red, but no longer inflamed. Higurashi wondered idly if it felt strange to Ayumi to pick up and handle objects, but she recoiled and threw the thought away, like something burning and poisonous.

"Higurashi-san," Yuka whispered.

The young girl came up to her and pulled on her sleeve, looking around in a clandestine manner.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I've learned some information," she whispered. "Come over here."

They withdrew to a spot out of earshot and just outside the reach of the light. Yuka repeated, almost word for word, everything that she had learned from the demoness Kagura.

"Did you know all this already?" she asked her.

Higurashi shook her head.

"No, only a tiny part of it."

She sighed, and Yuka took one of her hands in her own, trembling.

"Oh, Mikomi," she whispered, her eyes frightened. "It's all so awful!"

Higurashi put her other hand on the girl's shoulder.

"I know," she said. "We have to be strong, and have faith that fate will be kind to us."

"I thought," the girl cried. "I thought this was all just a weird mistake, and I'd wake up from it, or it would go away on its own. I thought it would be brief, temporary. But we've been drawn into something…something huge and terrible!"

Higurashi nodded.

"I know," she said again. "I'm sorry, Yuka-chan, I shouldn't have let you stay at the shrine. I am destined to be here, I'm sure, but you and the others…I've twisted your fate."

"I have no one to blame but myself," Yuka admitted.

She rubbed her red and swollen eyes.

"Eri and Ayumi are the innocent victims here," Yuka went on. "I want to get them home again."

"We will," Higurashi whispered. "Somehow, I think—

She stopped and looked around. They both noticed a growing commotion. People, humans and demons, were moving past them in hurried, jumbled steps, and a cacophony of chaos grew around them.

"What is it?" Yuka asked.

"I don't know, but it looks like everyone is going outside. It's this way; let's go."

They went back towards the entrance tunnel and, on a whim, Higurashi stopped long enough to grab Ayumi's arm and force her to rise and walk with them.

The opening of the cave was crowded with a throng of people, some pointing, all talking in an excited hush. Before she got there, Higurashi saw Kouga and Inuyasha standing just outside. The monk Miroku and the demon slayer Sango were there also. Holding on to Ayumi's hand, she pushed her way through the crowd. The two of them emerged into the daylight with Yuka.

The path outside the cave, which held close to the side of the mountain, winding down to the right, was covered in a new, strange carpet. Those outside the tunnel stood with upturned faces, and Higurashi looked up in wonder at a soft, slow shower of purple flowers.

"What is this?" Yuka whispered in a strangled voice.

"I don't know," Higurashi murmured.

Unknown to Higurashi then, people had filled the tunnels like water poured into the mountain. Now, many of them made their way out to the numerous openings on the hillside, so that the mountain was dotted with them, standing here and there like flowers themselves, with their faces turned to the sky. Later, they would all report that the mysterious shower could be seen as far as they eyes could make out, in all directions.

It did not, however, last long, perhaps ten minutes. Higurashi was bemused, but not surprised. She realized that, on some level, she had expected it. A line, a fragment from one of her books that up to now was too enigmatic to make out, had hinted at it, and she had stored the information away into a compartment of her mind.

The sound of a violent sneeze snapped her attention back like a rubber band.

"Are you alright, Inuyasha?"

"Yeah," he grumbled. "The scent is heavy."

Kouga held a handful of them in his hands, and did not move for a while.

"Irises," he said.

"What was that?" Inuyasha asked.

"These are irises. I wonder…"

Something in the air stirred the petals at their feet. Higurashi heard the flapping of great wings, then the young kitsune stood among them.

"Hey," he said. "What's with the flowers?"

"They're irises," Kouga repeated.

"So?"

"As in 'Ayame'," Inuyasha said.

Kouga looked at him.

"What do you know about it?"

"Not much," Inuyasha shrugged. "But I know she's dead, I've seen her ghost myself."

"So have we," Sango spoke up.

"Kouga-kun, and the rest of us, also saw her," Higurashi said.

"I guess that's no coincidence," Kouga said.

"Well, I've never seen her." Shippou said.

"Maybe that's—

Inuyasha stopped himself, his eyes growing troubled.

"What?"

"It's nothing. What brought you back? Did you see anything?"

"Oh, right," the young demon exclaimed. "You won't believe what I saw. We should get everyone together."

"Everyone's standing out here," Inuyasha pointed out.

"Not everyone," Shippou said. "Come on inside."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and followed him. Others did the same, including Higurashi and the girls. Shippou went through the first space in the caves and continued through the tunnels until he came to the spot where Kagura was recuperating.

When Kagura saw them coming, the light that came into her eyes was almost painful. Remembering her history, Higurashi thought to herself,

_She 'grew up' in darkness, and never learned to hide her emotions._

"How are you feeling?" Shippou said to her.

"Oh, I'm fine," she answered. "Just bored out of my mind. I appreciate you finally coming around to check on me."

Despite her sarcasm, her eyes were smiling.

"Actually, I have some new information, and you should hear it with everyone else."

Looking into his face, Kagura's eyes grew wary.

"What is it?"

Shippou looked around. Rather without thinking, Higurashi did the same. She noted that Sango and Miroku were standing close to each other, and near to Inuyasha. Kouga stood near Yuka, and Eri and Ayumi were standing between herself and Yuka. Ayumi looked much like she would have preferred to be elsewhere. Nearby, the priestesses Botan and Momiji, along with the young girl Suzi, stood in a cluster together, apart from the larger group, listening intently. Nazuna, Nobunaga and Jinenji stood a few steps behind Inuyasha.

"I guess everyone is here," Shippou began, taking a deep breath. "When I went out this morning, I went north for a bit, to check if maybe there were any survivors from yesterday that hadn't made it here. I didn't find any, so then I went south, just to see what was going on in the area. It didn't take long before I could see the Hyouden. It looks like a large house, built into a mountain side, with a sheer wall facing the valley. The valley is extremely wide, with the river, the same one we fought in yesterday, winding through it and going to the sea, which I think is just behind the house."

"Actually," Kouga interrupted, "the front of the house is technically the side that faces the sea. You were looking at the back of it."

"Whatever. As I flew a little closer, I saw more Tsuchigumo."

Higurashi drew a sharp breath, and she felt the air around her become still and tense.

"How many more?" Kouga asked.

"More than we've ever seen before."

A silence fell.

"Damn it!" Kagura burst out, slamming her fist down on the floor. "Where do those bastards keep coming from?"

"It gets worse," Shippou said.

"Out with it," Inuyasha told him. "Just get it all out."

"They're not like the ones we've seen before," Shippou explained. "They looked the same, but they were…organized. Those trolls that we saw for the first time yesterday, now they act like captains, or colonels, and they're leading the spider monsters in uniform regiments, in a vast army!"

"Well," Kouga threw up his hands. "That's it. We're done for."

"You're gonna give up already?" Inuyasha was incredulous.

"Already? What do you mean, _already_? While _you_ have been wondering around the countryside, _we've_ been fighting this pieces of shit for months, and to what end? After all we've done, they're stronger and more numerous than ever."

"Where were they going, Shippou"? Sango asked him.

"No doubt about it, they are marching on the Hyouden."

Silence fell again. Higurashi heard the slow drip of water coming from somewhere in the dim passages.

"You do what you want," Inuyasha declared. "But I ain't gonna sit here, skulking in a cave."

"Wow," Kouga said in a sarcastic tone. "I had no idea you were so loyal and protective of your brother."

"I don't give a damn about him!"

"Then why should we all risk our hides for him?" Kouga demanded.

"Weren't we going to the Hyouden, anyway?" Miroku pointed out. "Our reasons for doing so have not changed."

"But now we have all the more reason to think twice about it," Sango countered, "as Myouga-jii-chan said."

"We're not going to start listening to that coward, are we?" Inuyasha scoffed.

"Come on, Inuyasha," she said. "Would Sesshoumaru welcome us, even if we came to deliver him from disaster?"

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," Kagura burst out. "Those monsters are responsible for the murder of countless people. They are our enemy. More than that, I'm sure they come from Naraku. I, for one, will never stop hunting them!"

"Kagura's right," Shippou said. "I'm going to fight them."

"Hey," Inuyasha said. "You're not on your own anymore."

"What, just because I'm with you again, I can't decide for myself?"

"You're not being reasonable," Sango said, "you or Kagura."

"Alright," Higurashi spoke up finally. "That is enough."

Everyone turned to stare at her.

"There are some things I need to tell you all," she said. "I should have already, but…"

Higurashi recounted her own steps since she last saw Kagome. She explained, in great detail, her encounters with the spirit of the dog demon, her discovery of the prophecies, and what she already knew about what had happened and what was to come. They listened in stunned silence, as she added the death of her father-in-law and of Kaede. Sango and Miroku were dismayed to hear this news, and Sango wept openly, wringing her hands.

"Why didn't you mention that, Kouga?" Inuyasha growled.

"It slipped my mind, alright?" he retorted. "I've been a little distracted."

"How was Hachi?" Miroku asked him, his face subdued. "Did he seem alright?"

"He was upset that he couldn't find you," Kouga answered. "But he looked in good health."

Higurashi returned to the subject of the prophecies, and what they revealed of those present.

"I knew all of you," she said, "the moment I saw you. Because I am the Seeress, I see your other self, your higher self, walking beside you, in your shadow. I see the signs on your foreheads, very clear, that proclaim who you are."

Many of those listening to this revelation chose to sit down on the damp cave floor.

"I have seen a vision of Kagome," she went on. "I know she is alive, and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced she is at the Hyouden, waiting for us."

"I think…" Sango said slowly, "that would make a lot of sense."

"I don't know," Inuyasha said. "That would mean that Sesshoumaru is protecting her. He'd never do that."

"Just like we'd never be in a cave, having this conversation, with Kagura and Kagome's mother?"

"She makes a good point," Miroku said to him.

"We've heard Higurashi-san's story," Shippou said. "Maybe, before we decide anything, we should recount all our stories. We've been separated for a long time."

"That's a good idea," Miroku said.

He looked to Sango, who nodded, her expression solemn.

"We'll go first," he said.

Miroku left out nothing. He described the dreams that haunted him during the long sleep before he gained consciousness again, in the flower-strewn hut in Momiji's village. Momiji herself, standing nearby, only spoke up to fill in the gaps in his memory as Miroku recounted their journey to the sea with the comatose Sango. He even mentioned the short period when he and Sango bickered bitterly, though the recollection obviously pained him. This was how Shippou learned that they were married.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, sorry we didn't mention it," Miroku smiled. "We've been distracted, like Kouga says."

Miroku continued, telling how the Movement had come to the village and they had made a near escape of the vengeful flames.

"That almost happened to me, too," Botan murmured.

"Anyway, the rest you know," he concluded, sitting down next to his wife.

"I'll go next," Inuyasha said.

He recalled waking up after the explosion, his wounds and the toxic rain, slipping in and out of sleep for weeks. He told how he followed Botan into the hills, provided food for the villagers, but more or less did nothing else for months.

"I had just begun to think that maybe I should leave, stop moping around feeling sorry for myself, when the Rains stopped and the stars came out."

"Sango and I were getting married at that very moment," Miroku told him.

"After that," Inuyasha went on, "I kept trying to go back to Edo, but I was forever getting interrupted, and moving further and further away."

"Interrupted?" Sango asked.

"You know, people needing help because of the Rains, or the oncoming winter. Then I ran into Nobunaga, then Nazuna, then Taroumaru, then Jinenji."

Shippou laughed. "It was like you were retracing your steps from the beginning."

"The same thought occurred to me," Inuyasha grumbled. "I was getting sick of being led around by the nose."

He told them of Midoriko's visitation at the abandoned temple. He got Nazuna to again repeat what the priestess had said.

"You're the only one she's spoken to directly, that I know of, " Higurashi told him. "Even I've only received messages through the prophecies."

Sango was ticking numbers off on her fingers.

"If what Midoriko says is accurate," she said, "we still have some time before we are supposed to go to her shrine, if that's what she meant. It would not take more than two or three days to get there from here."

"Nazuna said the same thing," Inuyasha said. "Apparently, she remembers everything she hears verbatim, so you might want to keep that in mind. So, anyway, I found Botan again, and you and Miroku, and now I'm here."

"OK, Shippou," he said. "Your turn."

Shippou stood thinking, for a moment, then took a deep breath.

"I was never asleep," he said. "I remember the very instant after the explosion that I thought took Kagome's life. I figured the rest of you were probably dead, too. I walked around forever, looking for you, but I found Kagura instead."

He told them how he had revived her, then retraced their steps through the hills, during a period of rain, illness from poison, and near madness. He told how they first encountered Tsuchigumo, and how they began amassing an army.

"You're leaving out Totosai," Kagura murmured.

"Oh, yeah," he said.

"You saw that old geezer?" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Where?"

Shippou explained how they had found him, after a random encounter with the raccoon demon, Hachi, and how the old demon had forged a new weapon for Kagura.

"So, you lost your powers?" Kouga asked her.

"Yeah, when I was cut off from Naraku."

"That makes sense. It explains why you don't even smell like him anymore."

"I don't?"

"Of course not!" Shippou exclaimed.

"I guess I hadn't thought of it," she shrugged.

"So, the rest you pretty much know," Shippou concluded. "We've been gathering more and more people, the wolf demons were added to our forces, and we've been fighting Tsuchigumo ever since."

"That is an amazing story," Miroku said, "but it doesn't really explain how you got so strong so fast."

"I don't know what to tell you," Shippou shrugged.

"It's common knowledge," Kouga said, "that kitsunes can age in either direction, as needed. Shippou _is_ young, but still quite a bit older than he looks; he stayed small before because he could."

Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku were stunned, and looked at the young demon.

"Well _I_ didn't know that," he said, a little defensive. "I haven't had much to do with other fox demons."

"So now that we know everything," Kouga said. "What are we going to do?"

"We can't just sit here doing nothing," Sango said. "And we've already decided it's unlikely we should go to Midoriko's cave right now. Sesshoumaru is an enemy of Naraku as well. He is named on the Warrant. There is an old saying, the enemy of your enemy is your friend."

"It's a stretch," Inuyasha said. "Even if we decided to go, how are we going to go about it?"

"What do you mean?" Kouga asked.

"You, me, I'm not worried about. But overall, we as a group don't stand a chance against that force that Shippou saw. We need more fighters."

"There's something else I haven't told you," Shippou cut in.

"Huh?" Inuyasha turned to him. "Why the hell not?"

"I got distracted!"

"I swear, if one more person says that…" Inuyasha growled.

"Anyway," Shippou cut him off, "what I was going to say, was that there were others that are fighting the Tsuchigumo, even now."

"Who?"

"I don't know, I just know I saw other demons harassing their flanks as they marched along."

"That's it then," Kagura said. "Shippou, we should gather what people that can and will fight, and go join these other demons. Time is of the essence. We should leave now."

"How are you going to go anywhere?" Kouga laughed at her.

Kagura struggled, a little clumsily, to get to her feet. Her left leg was bound with layers of tight cloth wrapped around two boards, so she could not bend it.

"I'm fine," she said, leaning with one hand against the wall. "I can already put some weight on it, and I don't need my legs anyway to be able to fly and kill Tsuchigumo."

"I can see there's no arguing with you," Shippou sighed. "I'll go through the caves and see who I can find, and we'll meet you on the south side of the mountain, alright?"

She nodded.

"Wait a minute," Inuyasha started to grab the kitsune's collar.

"There's no time, Inuyasha," he said, shoving his hand away. "We're losing daylight. Don't worry. This is what I do now."

With that, he turned and disappeared into the tunnels. Inuyasha stared after him in amazement.

"Well, there you have it," Miroku said. "We march on the Hyouden."

"We don't even know who these other demons are!" Kouga protested.

"We'll find out, soon enough."

They moved out shockingly fast. Yuka was astounded at the efficiency and mobility of the soldiers, in particular the wolf demons. Kouga had left them with clear instructions to follow Shippou and Kagura, as before, and to kill as many Tsuchigumo as possible.

"We have distant kin to the north," he said. "I'm gonna try to pursued them to help us. We need all the help we can get. While I'm gone, make sure nothing happens to the girls."

'The girls' was how everyone had come to refer to herself, Eri, Ayumi, and, sometimes, Higurashi. It was a term that grew among the wolf demon tribe when they were the only human women around, and now it just stuck. Even the others they had met, Inuyasha, Shippou, and the rest, began to use it. If anyone said 'the women', they were referring to all human females (except Sango), who had to be kept out of harm's way. If they said 'the girls' or, worse according to Yuka's thinking, _'wolf girls'_, she knew that she and her friends were being especially singled out.

Kouga had to instruct his men to protect them to ease his own worrying, because he had already tried and failed to convince them to stay behind in the caverns. When Higurashi told Yuka to get ready to leave, Kouga told her she was talking nonsense, that she would definitely not be going anywhere near the Hyouden. Higurashi turned on him with burning eyes.

"Just who do you think you are giving orders?" she demanded. "I am the Seeress, the mother of the Beloved, and if there is a chance that my daughter is there, then I am going, and you can just try and stop me!"

She stalked away, leaving Kouga wide-eyed and more than a little taken aback. The others snickered.

"If I didn't believe it before," Sango said, her eyes laughing, "I do now. That is definitely Kagome-chan's mother."

So Kouga left, taking only Ginta and Hakkaku, and Yuka found herself with a bundle strapped to her back, walking through the caverns for what felt like hours. She realize with surprise that she missed being carried by Kouga, just a little. Eri walked beside her, similarly burdened, and Ayumi walked behind them, her eyes downcast, not seeming to care where she was being led. Higurashi went ahead of them, talking to Inuyasha. On and on they pressed forward, until at last the light began to grow again. It was a natural light, wholesome compared to the orange, oily light of the torches. Yuka began to push toward it, impatient to feel the touch of fresh air.

When they emerged, it looked like mid-afternoon. Though winter hung on, the days were getting longer. Yuka looked around and saw that they were not far from the valley floor. The mountain now loomed over her shoulder, and the country opened up at her feet, empty and wild. Everywhere she looked, she saw only bare trees and evergreens, except for a clearing here and there and, far ahead, a space that looked more open, fading to a bluish-yellow line on the horizon. There were no crowded towns or shining cities, no stretches of black wires crisscrossing through the trees, no hum of highways or jumbo jets. She suppressed the faint edge of panic, which had become her constant companion in the past week.

Her eyes drifted to Eri and Ayumi, and she could sense that they were thinking the same thing. Ayumi, in particular, seemed almost overcome with something that looked close to hatred.

"Don't think about it," she told them.

They looked at her, startled.

"I know, it's all crazy, but try not to think about it."

"How do you suggest that we do that?" Ayumi asked in an acidic tone.

They began to follow the others down the slight incline of a dirt path that descended the mountain's slope.

"Let's sing a song, a song that only we would know," Yuka suggested. "It will be a good distraction."

"Do you think we should?" Eri asked, her face concerned.

Yuka laughed.

"Do you think someone here will write it down, and mess up our timeline?" she asked. "To hell with it, I say. Come on, suggest something."

"Ah…" Eri trailed off. "I can't think of anything."

After a minute or two of silence, Ayumi began to sing.

"_I'm sitting in the railway station,_

_Got a ticket for my destination._

_On a tour of one night stands,_

_My suitcase and guitar in hand._

_And every stop is neatly planned,_

_For a poet and a one man band."_

The other two joined her.

"_Homeward bound,_

_I wish I was_

_Homeward bound._

_Home, where my thought's escaping,_

_Home, where my music's playing,_

_Home, where my love lies waiting_

_Silently for me."_

They continued the song as they came down into the heavy scent of pine that lay over the valley, the sound rising up through the tall trees. More than a few souls turned their heads, perplexed, but the girls paid no attention to them.

_Homeward bound,_

_I wish I was_

_Homeward bound._

On his own, Inuyasha would have ran ahead, he would have already been there, but armies, especially human armies, do not move that fast. Though, you could hardly call what they had managed to muster an _army_. He cast frequent glances over his shoulder, and shook his head.

_These poor chumps don't stand a chance,_ he thought.

His nerves frayed and hummed like an overused lute string. Today was going to be a big day. However slow they moved, they would confront the army of the Tsuchigumo by nightfall. The two forces were closing in on the violence that awaited them, as inevitable and awful as a titanic tsunami.

"Do you believe that Kagome-sama will be there?" Miroku asked him.

"No, I don't," he answered.

"Can you sense, or smell anything ahead?"

"Nothing but humans and wolf demons," Inuyasha said. "I can smell some blood that I think is Tsuchigumo, but I can never sense them."

"Yeah, me either. They don't feel like anything. If Naraku made them, I wonder how he managed that."

"We don't know yet that Naraku is behind them. It's all guessing right now, and I hate guessing."

"You sound like Sango," Miroku said.

"She's a level-headed woman, her choice in mate notwithstanding."

"You never pass up an opportunity to tweak my nose, do you?" Miroku scowled at him.

Inuyasha flashed him a quick grin, and the look Miroku gave him in return was startled.

"What?" Inuyasha asked.

"I just…never saw you smile before," Miroku said.

"What? That's not true."

"It certainly is."

"You're exaggerating."

"I cannot recall a single instance," Miroku insisted.

"Don't blame me for your lame-brain memory."

"The only time I remember you smiling, you were drunk, or something like that."

"I've never been drunk in my life," Inuyasha protested, indignant.

"Whatever you say, Inuyasha-_sama_."

"That's very big of you, Miroku-_sama._"

"Are they always like this?" Higurashi, nearby, asked Sango.

Sango rolled her eyes.

"You have no idea," she answered in a long-suffering tone.

"As fascinating as all this is," Shippou said, "I'm going to fly up and look around. If we can't sense these demons, I don't wanna stumbled across them later, in the dark. Besides, Kagura's up there somewhere, flying around like a crippled little bug. I need to find her."

Inuyasha watched in fascination as feathers sprouted on his shoulders, then he was off and away in less than two seconds, casting a wide shadow over the little army.

"That's really unsettling," Sango complained. "Don't tell him I said this, but I kind of miss the old Shippou."

"Is it just me," Miroku began, "or are he and Kagura—

"Stop," Inuyasha cut him off. "Just stop."

"What?"

"Shippou is like a brother to me," he said. "Kagura is our ally now, and I'm getting used to that, but the thought of her as a sister-in-law is a bit too much."

"Well, I hate to tell you this, Inuyasha," Miroku said. "But _you_ said it."

"You're both crazy," Sango disagreed. "Shippou has grown up a lot, but he's still way too young for that."

"Perhaps you are right," Miroku said, but did not sound convinced.

Inuyasha put the thought out of his mind, choosing instead to concentrate on thoughts of the battle ahead. That, and what on earth he was going to say to Sesshoumaru.

_He may not even be there._

In a way, that seemed likely. In all the years he'd known him, Sesshoumaru had never been much of a home-body. However, if that was the case, why would an army be marching on his gate?

Inuyasha was getting used to the sounds and the movement of air he now associated with Shippou; he knew of the kitsune's return before anyone else saw him.

"What'd you see?" he asked him as soon as he saw ears to talk to.

"I can tell you that you are going to see the enemy in about ten minutes or so, when we step out of these trees."

Inuyasha stopped walking.

"How close will we be to them?"

"Ah," Shippou scratched his head. "About…half a mile, maybe less."

"So that'd be the valley where the Hyouden is, I guess."

"Right."

Inuyasha turned to others.

"We need to plan what to do," he said. "We can't just run screaming out of the woods."

"We also need to do something about them," Shippou indicated the girls.

Just then, Kagura came down to earth, her right foot barely touching the ground. She kept most of her weight still elevated.

"Where you been?" Shippou demanded. "I was looking for you."

"I went to the Hyouden," she replied.

"You _what_?" several of them shouted in dismay.

"Don't worry," she shrugged. "No one saw me."

"What did you see?" Inuyasha asked her.

"Not much. I saw Sesshoumaru, and another dog-demon who looks a lot like him. They were just standing around, watching the Tsuchigumo come right at them."

"Typical," Inuyasha snorted.

"I hope he at least had the decency to get that girl out of there to safety," Sango said.

"Oh yeah," Inuyasha said. "I forgot about her. Ren, wasn't it?"

"Rin."

"Right, right."

"I didn't see her," Kagura said. "Or Jaken."

"So he's not preparing himself or the structure at all?" Miroku asked.

"Well, it _did_ look like the doors and windows were barricaded or boarded," Kagura told him. "And there were bows and arrows on the balcony that overlooked the valley, _a lot_ of them."

"Bows and arrows?" Inuyasha was puzzled. "I've never seen Sesshoumaru use anything but a sword."

After a few moments of silence, Inuyasha tried to bring them back to the original subject, designing some sort of plan of attack. No one had much to suggest, as none of them had any experience in large scale fighting, except Shippou and Kagura.

"Wait just a sec, guys," Shippou said.

He walked back towards the soldiers and returned a few minutes later, followed by three other men. Inuyasha knew Kyotou and Nobunaga, of course, but did not recognize the third fellow. He was of stocky build, like Kyotou, but with softer features. He kept himself a little more neatly, with his hair gathered at the crown and braided.

"This is Fukushima-san," Shippou introduced the stranger. "He's…ah, one of our lieutenants, like Norio-san. I thought we could use the advice of people who have experience in fighting."

"That would include you, Shippou-sama," Fukushima murmured.

Shippou smiled briefly, then began to explain the situation to the three of them, often gesturing towards the south to indicate the general location of the Hyouden, the enemy, and possible allies.

"We need a map," Kyotou grumbled.

"Definitely," Nobunaga agreed. "I've never been this far west before. You could tell me the ocean was just twenty feet away and I'd know no better."

"I wish Norio-san was here," Shippou complained, rubbing his neck. "He knew this area pretty good, and had a talent for geography."

"He may still make a good soldier," Kyotou said, "but right now he's better where he is."

Fukushima looked puzzled.

"Oh, I guess you didn't know," Shippou said, "but Norio was hurt very badly the other day. We had to remove his arm."

Fukushima's eyes widened. "Which one?"

"The left."

"That's a mercy anyway," he murmured. "So he is back in the caverns?"

Shippou nodded.

"Does anyone have anything to write on?" Nobunaga asked, looking around.

"Oh wait," Higurashi said. "I do."

She removed the bag from her back, which she had managed to hold on to through the well and across the wild land. The rice balls were long gone, as were the matches, and all that remained were books, binders, and wads of paper. Higurashi pulled out one of the binders and tore from it a few pieces of paper. Her fingers searched in the bottom of the bag and at last she pulled out several small pencils.

"Here," she said, presenting the items to Shippou. "You can use these."

For a long, quiet moment, Shippou stared down at the pencils in his hand. Inuyasha recognized their peculiar, multi-sided shape, the beige writing tips, the tiny, red nubs of rubber. The sides of all of them were nicked and dented, and he wondered if Kagome had chewed on them, sometime in the past. He suspected that Shippou was wondering the same thing.

"Shippou-kun?" Sango asked him.

"Ah, yeah," Shippou shook his head. "Here, I'll try to draw what I saw."

He sat down in the dust at the foot of an old cypress with the paper, of one of Higurashi's books, on his lap. The three men stood over him.

"This forest ends soon," he said. "We're in the foothills, which will soon flatten out to a large valley, with a river. The river is big, but it looked shallow. It's between us and the Hyouden."

"Have the Tsuchigumo crossed it?" Kyotou asked him.

"No, not yet."

Shippou continued drawing.

"The valley is circled on the sides with more mountains, here, and here. The Tsuchigumo

Were here, last I saw them, and other demons were harassing their flanks, here."

"Other demons?" Kyotou asked sharply.

"Yeah, I didn't get a good look at them," Shippou scratched his head. "I don't know what kind of demons they are, but they sure seem to hate the Tsuchigumo."

"That is out first order of business," Nobunaga said.

"I agree," Kyotou said. "We need to find out who they are, and if we can join them."

"We could send them emissaries," Fukushima suggested quietly.

"Who'll go?" Shippou asked.

"Well you definitely have to go," Inuyasha told him.

"Come again?"

"You a leader of this outfit, aren't you?" Inuyasha asked him. "Either you or Kagura have to go."

"He is correct, Shippou-sama," Fukushima murmured.

"Just me?" Shippou asked, incredulous.

"No," Kyotou shook his head. "We should send several people. We want them to know we are serious."

"It should be people who can travel fast," Nobunaga said. "Who can quickly get to them and bring back word."

"That's me, then," Inuyasha said.

"I think I should go as well," Higurashi said.

Everyone turned in surprise.

"The oracles said that there would be allies on this field," she said. "I cannot say more than that I feel that I should go."

"Alright," Inuyasha said. "I'll carry you."

"Anyone else?" Shippou asked.

"No," Higurashi answered. "I don't think so."

"Ah, ok," he gave her a puzzled look, then shrugged. "We may as well go on then."

He was about to lift himself off the ground, when he stopped.

"Try to exercise _some_ caution, Kagura," he said.

She waved him off. "Just go on. I'll be fine."

Inuyasha knelt with his back to Higurashi.

"Let's go," he said. "I run fast, so hold on tight."

"I know," she said.

"We'll be back as soon as possible," he said to the others. "I wouldn't try to cover any more ground right now. Let everyone rest."

Inuyasha leapt away into the wind of the winter afternoon, falling into evening, with Kagome's mother clinging to his shoulders.

Sango sat in the sun in the middle of a small clearing. The wind had picked up as the sun sank slower in the sky, but some light was still coming through the trees, and it was pleasantly warm. All around her, men were taking advantage of the opportunity to rest. She heard snatches of their hushed conversation. They spoke in low voices, maybe trying to conserve their energy, maybe oppressed by the thought of the upcoming battle.

From what she heard, they did not resent being led into another battle so soon, and that was good. Indeed, most seemed eager to kill as many Tsuchigumo as possible, and were grateful for the opportunity. They always spoke of Shippou and Kagura with respect and a regard that was almost tender. Sango tried to imagine what it must have been like for Shippou, fighting on and on for months, but she just couldn't.

Miroku lay in the grass next to her, his hand thrown over his face. Her eyes were caught by the gleam of the sun on his rosary beads, and Sango wondered what would happen when they caught up with the enemy. She did not wish for her husband to use the Wind Tunnel, as every use shortened his life span by a fraction. This had always meant something, always an unspoken thought haunting the rafters in her head like the whine of a cold wind. Now that he was her husband, time from the end of his life meant something more, and the thought became a terrifying bat, flapping the clawed wings of panic. Aside from all this, Sango herself felt more than useless in the face of such a titanic threat. Not only was she weakened by what happened on the Plateau, by the long sleep followed by months of cold and deprivation, but what was she without Hiraikotsu?

The battle was imminent, and she knew these things should be addressed, but instead she put her head down on Miroku's shoulder and lay beside him on the dry grass. Not long after, Eri covered them with a fur blanket.

Yuka paced around the clearing with her arms crossed, her shoulders hunched in the cold, casting frequent glances in the direction Higurashi had gone. Her eyes fell on the slumbering Miroku and Sango.

"How can they nap at a time like this?" she demanded to no one in particular.

"Their lives have been chaotic and dangerous for a long time," the young samurai Nobunaga told her. "Their seeming indifference is just how they manage it."

As far as Yuka remembered, it was the first time he had said anything to her. She still found the experience of talking to someone who would be long dead when she returned home—if she ever returned home—to be more than a little disconcerting.

"Did you know them?" she asked. "I mean…before all this?"

"I am not sure what you mean by 'all this', but no, I had never met them before, only Inuyasha-sama and Kagome-sama. But, I know much of their history, since I've traveled with Inuyasha-sama for the past couple of months."

"How did you meet them, the first time?"

"Inuyasha-sama and Kagome-sama helped me rescue someone from a demon, someone I cared for very much. This was years ago. I was quite young."

He wore a soft, sad smile.

"But I thought Miroku-san and Sango-san traveled with them," Yuka said.

"Not then. I suppose they may not have met yet. Even Shippou-san was not with them back then. It was just the two of them. They were looking for sacred jewel shards."

Yuka knew that part of the story full well, and did not want to revisit it again, so she changed the subject.

"Have you fought in a battle before?"

"Many times," he answered. "We live in a troubled world."

"Hmm."

"You do not have much experience with war?" he looked at her closer.

"No, I do not," she answered, crossing her arms again. "Where I come from, war is a distant thing that does not concern me."

He smiled. "That sounds like a beautiful country. I would go there, by the shortest path possible, if I could. Why do you not return?"

This question only fueled Yuka's exasperation.

"It's not that simple," she said. "It's the same place Kagome comes from, but she does not return either. She is involved in this…mess."

"So, you are as well?"

"I don't know," she threw her arms up in frustration. "I guess so. Probably. If you don't mind, I'd rather go back to pacing than talk about this."

"As you wish."

She started to turn away but stopped.

"That woman who is always with you," she asked, "is she your wife?"

He looked surprised for a moment, then smiled.

"Ah, you must mean Nazuna. She and I…" he smiled wryly. "We have not had a marriage ceremony, no, but we are…"

He left it hanging.

"Ah, OK, never mind. I didn't mean to pry."

Yuka went back to pacing. After a few minutes, however, she stopped, tilting her head slightly.

"Do you hear that?" she asked Nobunaga.

He also tilted his head. Several people nearby stopped what they were doing. Sango sat bolt upright, the blanket falling from her shoulders.

"The ground is…humming," she put her hands down on the grass. "I'm sure of it."

Miroku sat up and looked around, blinking in the slanted light of the sunset.

"It must be the enemy's army," Nobunaga said. "They must be moving, and we're close."

Another sound grew above the trees, carried on a wind that moved fast and strong from the sea to the mountains. At first it sounded like the wind itself, murmuring in the pines, but then they could hear the unmistakable sound of a multitude of voices. It was a repetitive chant, a low drone accompanied by the stamping of thousands of feet and, perhaps, the low bass of a few drums.

They stood silent, listening to the sound go on and on, gripped by the terror of its enormity. Only moments later, Inuyasha and Higurashi appeared again, now accompanied by a woman none of them had seen before. She was as tall as most men, with jet black hair that she wore in a long braid down the center of her black. Her clothing was made of tight-fitting leather hides with simple, silver buckles. Her features were elegant and her carriage regal, but her dark, almond eyes were kind.

Shippou, transformed once again, landed nearby, panting.

"This is Shinme," Inuyasha said to them, indicating the stranger. "She is in charge of the horse demons, which, as it turns out, are the ones fighting the enemy in the valley."

The others bowed to her.

"It is most uncustomary and uncomfortable for me to be so brief and uncivil," she said to them, "but alas, we do not have the time for the expected pleasantries. Know, however, that I recognize all of you and am overjoyed to be among you."

"It sounds like we're all going somewhere pretty soon," Kagura said.

"You still got that map?" Inuyasha asked Nobunaga.

The young man nodded and produced the folded paper. Inuyasha spread it out on the ground again.

"Shinme's demons are here," he pointed to a spot between them and the western mountains and the river.

"Are we going to join them?" Kagura asked him.

"I think I have a better idea," Kyotou spoke up.

"Our chances of success will be greater if the enemy is forced to fight multiple fronts. They are already defending their western flank. If the occupants of the Hyouden will defend it, they will have to defend their southern front."

"Sesshoumaru is only one demon, but he will definitely give them something to worry about, believe me," Inuyasha said.

"So you think we should attack them from the east?" Nobunaga pointed to the map.

Kyotou nodded.

"There's something else," Shippou pointed out. "If we do that, we'll be able to stay hidden from them a little longer, and get more of a jump on them. The gap between us now means they'd see us coming for a mile."

"You're turning into quite the little general, aren't you?" Inuyasha nudged him.

Shippou responded with an epithet that made Sango wince.

"Anyway," Miroku waved his hand, "it seems we have the best plan we're going to get."

"When do we act?" Sango asked.

"We must waste no time," Shinme urged them. "We may be too late as it is."

"What about the girls?" Miroku asked.

"Someone, maybe a couple of the wolf demons, will have to carry them away," Inuyasha said.

"Away?" Higurashi interrupted, alarm.

"Do you think the four of you are ready to take up swords and spears?" he asked her directly.

"No, of course not, but I won't be sent far away."

"We don't have time to send you far away," he said. "They'll have to stash you in the Hyouden."

"I agree," Miroku said. "It is the only shelter nearby and, even under the worst circumstance, it can be hoped that Sesshoumaru will be too distracted to make an issue of it."

Inuyasha turned back to Higurashi.

"Will you see to it?" he asked her. "You know the wolf demons better than I do, and they'll listen to you if you ask a few of them to help you."

"We'll go with you," Shippou said. "They're used to taking orders from me and Kagura."

He and Kagura and the girls went back into the trees where the wolf demons and soldiers were resting. Shippou stopped and turned back to them.

"Don't wait for us, Inuyasha," he said. "Go ahead now. We'll catch up."

Then he left.

"You heard him," Inuyasha stood up. "We leave now."

Sango raised her hand, and opened her mouth, but hesitated, her expression conflicted. Miroku put a hand on his wife's shoulder.

The forces moved out. Word was spread to the men and wolf demons and they turned along the eastern edge of the dark woods, quickening their pace into almost a run. A handful of wolf demons carried Higurashi and the girls and ran ahead at full speed. At the front of the small army, Nobunaga, Fukushima, and Kyotou walked with Shippou and Kagura. Shippou noticed that Kagura only seemed to walk with them, but in fact was keeping a few inches above the ground, and he wondered how long she would be able to keep the injured leg safe. Inuyasha ran a short distance ahead, to make sure they did not stumble into a trap. The sun sank lower, and the din of the voices of the enemy grew louder.

As Shippou walked beside Kagura, he worried what would happen when Higurashi got to the Hyouden alone. Maybe he should have gone with them. If he had, he might encounter Sesshoumaru. What if they get there alone, and the hateful dog demon is waiting at the door? But he could not bear to separate from the forces on the edge of battle. He wondered what those around him were thinking in this hour. They were set to throw themselves in the teeth of an enemy, with scarce chance of victory.

If it all goes wrong, which seemed almost certain, what will happen? Will we all die anyway? Sango and Miroku? Inuyasha and Kouga? Kagura?

Without thinking, he reached out and took Kagura's hand. She accepted it without taking her eyes from the path.

Could even Sesshoumaru die today?

_Will I die today?_

[End of Chapter 28]

[Next chapter: The Siege]

Author's Notes: I believe that there is only one chapter left to go for book two. However, as I am finishing said chapter, I fear it may be so long that it will have to be split into two. When I look back on all the chapters, I can see that, overall, they have been progressively growing in length. I wonder why that is? In any case, I'm excited about the prospect of finishing the second book. The next installment will be action packed, as we must defend the Hyouden and [finally] reunite everyone.

Speaking of which, I fear that the reunions themselves are somewhat problematic. I try to reunite the characters without spending _too_ much time retelling things you've already read. I figure a light recap is warranted anyway, considering the length of time between the posting of chapters and the volume of the material. Please let me know, however, if all the talking and explaining bore you to tears.

Faithful reader kokoronagomu pointed out in a review that the previous chapter bore a striking resemblance to material from Star Trek. I've since been unable to find that review again, but I'm sure I saw it and didn't just dream it. Anyway, I had to look up "Bajoran", but once I did I understood. I watched Star Trek with my mother when I was child. I remember seeing the episode of Deep Space Nine in question, but my only clear memory of it was "you exist here", which stuck with me. The memory receded, with most of youth, and in fact I lumped it into Next Generation and thought the beings were manifestations of "Q". Thanks to kokoronagomu, I have reacquainted myself with an old friend; I discovered that all the Star Trek series are on Netflix and have already watched all of Next Generation and half of Deep Space Nine. So...thanks!

This piece of the previous chapter is not the only reference in Edge, though it may be the longest. Every chapter is filled to overflowing with references to my favorites books, songs, movies, and T.V. series. This is something I have had the most fun with while writing the fic.

Anyway, if you're reading this, thanks so much for reading the long note and especially for getting this far in my fic. I appreciate every reader; I know that this work will never be wildly popular for any number of reasons, but I have so enjoyed working on it and have even come to rely on it as a retreat away from a humdrum and agitating world. Thanks again!


	30. The Siege

**Author's notes:**

OK, I know it's been too long since I've updated but, to make up for it, here are TWO chapters, and quite long chapters too.

To recap, if you don't want to go back and re-read anything, when we left off Inuyasha et al were heading toward the Hyouden, having just been reunited and having just met Shinme. Kagome and Sesshoumaru had a little tiff, until Ayame's ghost sent them a not-so-subtle message to knock it off, and Tamotsu returned to tell them they better get their shit together because a boatload of enemies were marching their way. So…three, two, one…GO!

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Thirty: The Siege**

"_Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage." – Ralph Waldo Emerson_

"What now?" Kagome asked.

Jaken looked from her to his lord, nervously shifting his staff from one hand to the other and shuffling his feet in the soft iris petals.

"I think we should send her away," Tamotsu told his cousin.

"What?" Kagome started. "Do you mean me?"

Sesshoumaru considered it.

"No," he said after a moment. "The risk is too great."

"Unless we all go," Tamotsu suggested.

"I will not abandon my home to be overrun by rats," Sesshoumaru answered.

"I had a feeling you'd say something like that," Tamotsu said.

He turned to Kikyou.

"What do you think?"

She was silent for a moment, then drew a deep breath before answering.

"It is too perilous to send only some of us, or one of us, away," she agreed. "And if Naraku is behind this threat, it is my feeling that we have to face it. We cannot begin running from him already. If he is powerful enough to conquer the Hyouden, then there is nothing for it anyway."

"I completely agree," Jaken put in emphatically.

"Alright then," Tamotsu said, "we all stay and fight together. It's not as hopeless as it seems. The Karauma are already attacking them."

"What?" Jaken exclaimed. "Shinme-sama is out there?"

"Yep. Least, she was this morning. I've also heard rumors that someone else has been fighting them, off to the north, and they might follow them. I don't know who they are, only that they are led by two captains…demons of some sort."

Jaken's heart fluttered then grew still, and he looked to his master. But Sesshoumaru's expression did not change. Jaken turned back to the others.

"Well," he snapped, "what are you standing around gawking for? Rin, get inside. You two, you've been practicing your aim, haven't you?"

Kagome nodded.

"There are bows and arrows in the old shed on the west side of the courtyard. Start bringing them up."

They stared at him.

"Move, damn you!" he shouted and banged his staff on the ground.

"Alright, alright," Kagome said, putting up her hands. "Don't hurt anyone. We're going."

Rin went into the house, Kagome and Kikyou moved off to the outer buildings, and Tamotsu and Sesshoumaru were already on the terrace overhead. Jaken looked around and moved closer to Kohaku.

"I saw what you did to the men that came here before," he said in a low voice.

A momentary look of panic overtook Kohaku's features.

"Listen!" Jaken hissed, seizing his arm. "These won't be men. They'll be monsters, understand? Thoughtless, heartless monsters. I don't need to tell you, do I? If they came from Naraku, you know what they'll be like."

Kohaku paled, but nodded.

"Then show them no mercy," Jaken said. "You know you will get none, nor will those women, if we fail."

Kohaku's eyes widened and Jaken watched an old pain gather in a pool behind them. A light flickered, and the look was gone, replaced with an implacable stillness.

_I'm glad he's on my side,_ he thought, but all he said was, "Help them get those arrows."

"Yes, Jaken-sama."

The young man turned and ran out of the gardens.

Jaken stood still and alone for a long moment, trying to feel through the ground, through his feet, through his bones, the first evidence of the enemy's march, but the valley was still as quiet as any winter morning and nothing unusual could yet be heard or seen, except for the lavender flower petals that covered everything.

He went into the house and found Rin sitting on a low bench in the kitchen, fidgeting her hands.

"What are you doing sitting around?" he demanded. "Can't you think of any way to be useful?"

Rin's look was stricken.

"What do you want me to do?"

He waved her off in disgust.

"Oh, forget it," he said. "Just get somewhere out of the way."

Rin jumped to her feet and reached out, grabbing his sleeve.

"No, wait, Jaken-sama," she cried. "Please, give me something to do, anything."

Jaken rubbed his chin. "Well…"

"Anything!" she repeated.

"I'm thinking!" he barked at her.

He snapped his fingers.

"Ah! There are planks of the wood in the cellar. Start bringing them up. We'll board up the doors and windows."

She nodded and ran from the room.

"Get Kohaku to help you when he comes back from helping those mikos!" he called after her.

"Do I have to think of everything around here?" he muttered to the empty room.

A blanket of dark clouds made it difficult to guess at what time of day it was. In the bustle of activity, with everyone scurrying about the house in hopes of saving it, it was impossible to believe in what had occurred between her and Sesshoumaru only that morning.

Kagome helped Kikyou haul arrows in heavy bundles into the house, through the kitchen door, into the main gallery and up the stairs to the north facing terrace. They piled them there in stacks against the wall. For a long time the task seemed endless but, with Kohaku's help, the stock in the shed slowly dwindled. When the last bundle was added to the pile, Kagome estimated that they had almost a thousand. She looked at the hoard and sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"I don't know why we spent so much time and energy getting them all," she mourned. "I'll never be able to shoot even close to half of these."

"We will do our best," Kikyou said. "It is better to have too many than too few."

She turned to go back into the house.

"Where are you going?" Kagome asked her.

"Rin-san, Kohaku-san, and Jakan-sama are barricading the windows and doors."

Kagome sighed again and her shoulders drooped.

"You do not have to help," Kikyou said.

"No, I'll help."

"That can wait. You will come with me."

Kagome jumped and spun about to see Sesshoumaru standing behind her on the terrace.

"Where did you come from?" she demanded in a squeaky voice.

"This way," he said, and walked inside.

She cast a glance at Kikyou, but her returning look was unconcerned. Kagome could not think of a way to refuse without starting another argument. Despite the day's turn of events and the somewhat mysterious change in Sesshoumaru's demeanor, she still felt the precariousness of her position. She followed him to the kitchen, where he indicated that she was to sit on the low bench near the fire. She sank on to it, grateful for the excuse to rest.

Sesshoumaru said nothing, but retrieved several items from one of the many recesses in the wood-paneled walls. He sat on the floor in front of her and took her right hand. It took every ounce of her will to not scream and jerk her hand away.

He turned it over, examining the wound that he himself had made just that morning.

"Oh," she said in a confused fluster. "It's alright. I can barely feel it."

He gave her a grumpy look, and she could not be sure if she had offended him by lying, or by implying that he was unable to hurt her.

He removed the lid from a small, earthenware pot and dipped his slender fingers into it. He applied a large amount of a thick, translucent grease to the hand and arm. Kagome bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut.

_Don't scream, don't scream, don't scream, don't scream!_

"What is that?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even and casual.

"It will suppress the pain so as to better allow you to shoot."

Kagome felt her arm grow warm, almost hot, then strangely numb.

"That's amazing!" she couldn't help exclaiming.

She held the arm up and examined it as though he had attached a new one. He interrupted her study by taking the arm again and wrapping it in a long strip of thick, white cloth.

The air in the kitchen was warm, almost suffocating, and uncomfortably silent.

"You may keep the jar, and reapply as needed," he said, releasing her.

"Thank you," she murmured.

He turned to leave the room, and Kagome looked out the window towards the sea.

"Sesshoumaru."

She spoke so quietly she was not sure he'd hear her, but he stopped.

"Thank you, for everything."

He did not answer, did not turn to look at her, but he stood quite still for some time, as if undecided and frozen in place. The next minute that came and went, in that quiet and warm dark, dragged out like honey from a spoon, and Kagome waited in agony, not moving her eyes, wishing for it be over. Then he was gone. She took a deep breath and looked around the empty room, blinking back tears.

She had practically lived in this room for over three months. In every corner she saw the ghost of a memory. Small and silent meals and frequent, long drinks of sake, all cast their shadows on the low table. Their bedding had been folded and put away against the far wall, probably by Jaken. Kagome remembered waking up from her temporary death on the floor of the baths, and Tamotsu carrying her to this room. She remembered sitting beside Rin as she slept, recovering from her own ordeal. She recalled, through Kikyou's shared memory, the voice of Death.

_A wise decision, General._

She shuddered. Now she was preparing to fight to the death to defend Sesshoumaru's house. _Sesshoumaru's_ house!

_Who am I? What have I become?_

She did not know if she should laugh or cry, so she did neither. She put the little jar into a pocket of the dark blue hakama she wore, which Rin had brought out of an old cedar box and Kikyou had taken in for her. She found a strip of cloth in a corner, where Kikyou kept such things, and she tied back her hair. The Hiraikotsu leaned in the corner, and she wondered if Kohaku would choose to fight with it. For a moment she was tempted to ask him to stay in the house with Rin but, no, that would not be…appropriate. He was a man now, she had to remind herself, and had every right to fight.

_Let's not waste our time thinking how that's not fair._

It was mid-afternoon, and no one had stopped moving and no one had eaten. Kohaku paused only for a second now and again in his work, tilting his head and straining his ears to attempt to detect the march of feet, the thud of fists against chests, or the chant of low and hateful voices. As of yet, the only sounds he heard were of the bustle inside the house.

He was alone in an upstairs room, finishing the work of blocking the windows, when he heard a soft mewing sound behind him. He turned and saw Kirara, sitting in her diminutive state, her scarlet eyes wide and questioning.

He completed the work, putting the last board in place, then bent to pick her up.

"Hi, Kirara," he said. "How are you feeling?"

She looked at him, from her perch in his hands, and lashed her tail.

"Are you ready to fight?"

She growled.

Kohaku was about to respond when he felt a peculiar, shaking sensation through his feet, as if a colossal man stalked the upstairs hallway with heavy strides. Kirara growled again.

"Not a moment too soon," Kohaku murmured. "I think they're almost here."

Still carrying the demon cat, Kohaku went down the hall to the double-door entrance and to the terrace. He walked out into the cold air and stood by the ledge. Jaken stood to his right, holding his staff with one hand, and with the other lifting himself to see over the stone balustrade. To Kohaku's left stood Kagome, then Kikyou. Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu stood next to Jaken, and Rin stood at the end, beside Tamotsu.

The seven of them gazed out across the plains and the black line of enemies coming toward them, pushing across the Fields of Eternal Snow like a slow tidal wave of mud. Kohaku could see that they were many, and, though he knew that Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu could make a more accurate estimation, he did not ask them for it.

"There's an awful lot of them," Rin murmured.

"It will make no difference," Jaken declared. "They will break on this house like glass on the rocks."

No one said anything.

"You humans should try to eat something," Jaken said. "You're weak enough without fainting from hunger in the middle of battle."

"I think that's a good idea," Rin said. "I'm very hungry."

"I will make us something," Kikyou said.

They left, but Kohaku lingered behind.

"Will it really be alright, Jaken-sama?"

"I don't know, boy," Jaken sighed. "Hope you are prepared to die."

Kohaku looked out again towards the tide of the enemy.

"I've been dead before," he murmured. "There are worse things. Take it from me."

He followed the others into the house, and did not notice Jaken's shudder.

Unlike the other three humans in the Hyouden, Rin had no trouble eating. In spite of everything, she remained her usual impenetrable self, incapable of conceiving of a world where her lord could be defeated. Her only worry was that, through some mistake or oversight, someone else would be allowed to die. She did not doubt for a moment that Sesshoumaru would defend her, and she was fairly certain that he would defend everyone else in the house. It was possible however, even in her mind, that he might become so occupied in the coming fight that someone would be lost accidentally.

She was still thinking over this possibility when she collided with Sesshoumaru himself in the hall as she headed back to the terrace.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, rubbing her nose. "I am so sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama! I wasn't paying attention."

"Rin," his sharp voice made her jump. "Come."

She did not hesitate to follow him into an upstairs room, one she had never before had occasion to enter. It was larger than most of the other second story rooms, with dark, ancient furnishings. Sesshoumaru went to a heavy, mahogany chest and opened it.

"Come here," he said.

She went and stood behind him. When he turned he was carrying something a folded cloth or garment. He knelt to the floor in front of her, much to her astonishment.

"My lord," she started to lower herself.

"No, keep straight."

He unfurled the fabric and she saw it was a short kimono, bearing on the shoulder the same crest he wore.

"Remove your haori."

She obeyed, untying the anemone embroidered jacket and letting it fall from her shoulders to the flow. He wrapped the new garment around her, adjusting it and belting it tight. Over this, he helped her into black hakama. They were ridiculously too large, but he folded them to fit. Rin cooperated with the maneuvers, almost numb with bewilderment. After she wriggled her way back into her haori, he offered her a knife. It was long and thin, with a slight curve at the tip. The handle was made of ivory and decorated with a carving of white anemones. She took it with fingers that felt cold and hollow.

"You are a member of this house," he told her. "Do not allow yourself to be killed by any hand but your own. Do you understand?"

Rin swallowed hard and nodded. She stared down at the knife in her hand, unable to lift her face.

He put the crook of one finger under her chin. It was the first time she could remember him touching her when she was not sick, injured, or in serious danger.

"Rin," he looked into her eyes. "Do you understand?"

She took a deep breath and bowed her head.

"I understand, my lord."

"You are aware that there is a room in the cellar, which may be reached by going through the baths. The walls and ceiling are stone of the mountain. There is a supply of food and water. You will go there and barricade the door until you hear my voice ordering you out."

"Yes, my lord," she touched her forehead to the floor again. "Do you want me to go now?"

"When I tell you to."

"Yes, my lord."

He turned to leave, but stopped for a moment in the door.

"And Rin, I am always with you, even if you cannot hear my voice."

Speechless, Rin just stared at his back until she could no longer see it. She looked down at the knife in her trembling fingers.

_I've been just guessing at all these riddles. I don't really know…It's all too big for me!_

Tamotsu instructed both of them to keep in the house and out of sight until the attack was under way.

"I'm going to try to stay hidden at first, maybe attack them from another location when they're not expecting it," he said to them. "I want them to get right to the door, thinking Sesshoumaru is alone."

"I think you have a tendency for the dramatic," Kikyou said to him.

He shrugged. "Nobody's perfect."

Kagome gave up on eating any more and began picking up all the plates. She dropped them into the trough by the window.

"I wish it were all over," she said quietly.

"So do I," Rin agreed.

Everyone had noticed the girl's change in clothing when she came back into the kitchen, but no one commented on it.

"I'm off then," Tamotsu said.

He kissed Rin on the forehead, patted Kohaku on the shoulder, and Kagome on the behind. She swung at him, but he dodged it easily, grinning. He did not touch Kikyou, only waved his hand and said,

"Be good, girl!"

He went out through the ground floor gallery and Kagome heard him go through the front door. He rang the brass bell once and was gone.

"I wish it were all over," Kagome said again.

"I don't care what Tamotsu says," Jaken growled. "I'm going up to my lord. I can't stand waiting in here."

Kagome thought to call after him, to inform him that it did not matter anyway, that he was too short for the enemy to see over the terrace rail, but he was gone before she could. She returned to her contemplation of the lead-colored sky.

The din of the enemy voices and feet began to drift into the window on a faint breeze. Kagome reminded herself that to Kirara, Jaken, Tamotsu, and Sesshoumaru, the noise was far louder, and she was struck with a sudden and strange notion, that though death came to such as these perhaps later, it came louder, that the price for the longevity was to hear the very faint patter of the footfalls of death.

_No one said it was easy._

As they made their way through the forested foothills, the sun began to sink behind the trees, and only a few pallid rays reached them. They shivered, dreading the nightfall. The pace of the army was excruciating.

Matters worsened when the sun disappeared altogether behind a dark bank of clouds that made a sudden appearance over the horizon. Anxiety already hung in the air when Inuyasha raised his face and sniffed the cold breeze.

"We'll have snow before too long," he announced.

"Great," Miroku grunted.

"I wish it was all over," Shippou complained.

"I'm not so sure you should wish for that," Kagura said.

Inuyasha stopped and held up one hand.

"What is it?" Miroku whispered.

"I smell people up ahead," he answered.

"You mean…_people_ people?"

Inuyasha gave him a sour look.

"You trying to say that demons aren't really people?"

"Don't be a jackass," Miroku retorted. "You know what I mean."

"Whatever. Yes, _people_ people."

"What should we do?" Sango asked.

Inuyasha turned to Shinme. The queen of the horse demons had declared she would march with them up until the first attack began, then she would rejoin her warriors. When Shippou asked her if she needed to communicate their plan to her army, she had only given him a pitying smile.

"Do you know who they are?" Inuyasha asked her.

She shook her head.

"Alright," Inuyasha said, looking around. "Everyone hold back for a few minutes and I'll go check it out."

"I'll go with you," Miroku said.

To his credit, Inuyasha did not argue this time. The two of them pushed forward through a tangle of dead, winter brush, while Sango and the others spread word to the men and wolf demons behind them to halt their march. It took only a few minutes to get close enough to hear voices and make out individuals. The two of them hid behind a sprawling cypress.

Some short distance ahead was a small clearing, which came to an abrupt end at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. A throng of people stood and sat on the dead grass, all men and all armed. Miroku estimated that there were several hundred at least.

"Should we introduce ourselves?"

"And if they want to fight?" Inuyasha asked. "We got enough problems with the spider monsters without taking on these jerks too."

"Why would they fight us?"

"I don't know. Why are they here at all?"

"Maybe they want to fight Tsuchigumo as well?"

Inuyasha hesitated.

"Maybe."

He did not sound convinced.

"Let's just try to get closer and maybe we can make out who they are and what they're doing here," Miroku said.

This was accomplished, but it took a frustrating amount of time because they had to tread with painstaking care through the dry grass and branches. When at last they had positioned themselves closer, but still concealed, they discovered they were near a group of men who had a fortunate inclination to chatter.

"I don't like this," one of them hissed. "If you were from these parts, like me, you'd know that that dog is no one to be trifled with."

"What, Sesshoumaru?" one of them said.

"Shh!" the first man hissed again. "Don't even say the name!"

"Oh, relax!" the second man said. "We're not even gonna have to fight him. He'll be mincemeat before we even get there."

"If you knew half of what I knew about him, you wouldn't say that."

"Look, I grant you that he's a powerful demon, but even he can't stand up to that many Tsuchigumo."

"Yeah sure, but what's to stop them for taking their turn on us, when they're done?"

"You know perfectly well who will stop them. We have our orders, and they have theirs."

"For all the good it'll do us," the first man muttered.

"Oh, shut up. I'm tired of listening to your bellyaching."

Inuyasha motioned to Miroku with his head, and the two of them made their way back to others.

"What took you so long?" Shippou demanded. "I was just about to go after you."

"We had to be careful not be heard," Miroku answered.

"Bad news," Inuyasha announced. "Our way is blocked by an encampment of human soldiers. It sounds like they might be working for Naraku."

"What?" Sango exclaimed. "How do you know that?"

"Well, I mean, assuming that the Tsuchigumo are connected with him. They're here to lend them a hand."

"So...we will have to fight our way through?" Nobunaga asked.

"It's not that easy," Inuyasha grumbled, rubbing his neck.

"Inuyasha does not fight humans," Miroku explained, "if he can help it."

"A noble sentiment," Nobunaga said, "but I don't know how he can help it, unless we are going to stop here and call it day, or turn back, or go to these men and ask nicely that they let us through."

"I have an idea," Kagura said.

They all turned to her.

"The rest of you go on through the woods, and stay as far from them as you can."

"That won't work," Inuyasha interrupted. "There's not enough room and they'll definitely notice us."

"Let me finish," she said impatiently. "The rest of you go on ahead, and Shippou and I will stay behind to distract them."

"Distract them?" Shippou asked.

"Yeah. We'd be perfect for the job because they've probably already heard of us and will know us right away as enemies. I have a few ideas."

"Do you think you could _try_ not to massacre them?" Inuyasha asked her.

"You are touchingly concerned over people who want you dead," she said.

"Welcome to the beautiful complexity of my mind," he said. "Answer the question."

"If my plan works," she said, "I won't have to kill a single one."

"And if it doesn't?"

"A sea of blood," she opened her arms and threw her head back, laughing maniacally. "The ground 'neath my feet shall be soaked in the crimson flood of mine enemy!"

He glared at her.

"Well, what do you want me to say, Inuyasha?" she asked. "Everything is going to be fine, no matter what? I can't give you that. I can only do my best."

"We have no time to lose," Shinme interjected. "If this is the best plan we have, then we must move forward, quickly and decidedly!"

"You go on ahead," Shippou said to the rest, already moving away. "We'll catch up."

Without waiting for an answer, he and Kagura turned away and hurried through the trees, disappearing into the growing gloom of twilight.

"Wait!" Inuyasha called after him.

Miroku grabbed his robe.

"Let him go," he said. "We just have to trust him."

"But… what are they going to do?" he demanded.

A few moments later, a shocking detonation rumbled in the ground, rattling their teeth and shaking needles from the pine trees.

"What was that?" Sango cried.

Shouts of dismay could be heard in the distance, and the sound of people yelling and running in disarray.

"I think that was our signal," Miroku said. "Let's go. Now!"

Everyone turned to run ahead along the edge of the woods that hugged the cliff. Miroku stayed behind directing the rest of the soldiers to hurry and stay in single file as much as possible. After perhaps ten minutes had passed, he noticed a growing warmth in the air that seemed out of place in the winter woods. The sky that he could see through the trees was streaked with red and orange, and it was in the wrong direction to be sunset.

"Fire! Fire!" the shouts rang out all around him, and the men began to run.

"Be careful!" he warned them. "Keep going! Don't panic!"

Another detonation quaked the ground, following by more panicked cries.

"What the hell are they doing?" he muttered.

Inuyasha, Sango, and the others led the men and wolf demons away from the encampment as quickly as they could, bringing them close to the edge of the sea, then looping back again into the foothills. It was slower going than Inuyasha would have liked because the ground was uneven and covered almost everywhere with gravel and large, sharp rocks.

After some time, however, when the eastern sky behind them had turned a sooty red and black, they came out of the dense cover. The line of firs ceased all at once at the edge of an embankment that marked the end of the foothills. Below them, the land sloped gently to meet the valley, where to the right they could see an oxbow bend in the shallow river. To their left the Hyouden towered over the fields. The valley was several miles wide and filled with the enemy.

"Well, there it is, at last," Sango said.

"Yep," Inuyasha looked across the expanse. "We've come a long way to see it."

Nobunaga, red-faced and breathless, caught up to them.

"I hope the girls are safe," he worried, "and weren't caught by those men back there."

Inuyasha shook his head.

"I didn't smell them anywhere," he said. "I'm sure the wolf demons got them out."

"We did!"

The wolf demons that had been employed to get the girls to safety were approaching them, coming along the line of trees from the south. The one who had spoken was gray-headed, though otherwise he looked as young as Kouga.

"They are at the Hyouden," he said. "We left them at the front gate. I didn't see Sesshoumaru-sama anywhere—they should be alright, for now."

In the valley below the enemy had advanced to within about a hundred feet of the house and stopped. The stone wall of the Hyouden that faced north was tall and sheer, jutting out of the hills like a fang. The windows on that side of the house were at least two stories up, but Inuyasha could see that they were still boarded, as was the one narrow door on that side of the house.

"Is that your brother there?" Nobunaga asked.

He pointed to a stone terrace that extended out from the north facing wall, about forty feet from the ground.

"Yeah, the one on the left. The little guy is his servant, Jaken."

"OK, let me make sure I am not mistaken." Nobunaga said. "You mean the toad demon is _not_ your brother, right?"

Inuyasha was about to retort when he sensed Shippou's return and turned to see the young fox demon joining them, flanked by Kagura, wearing a tight grin on his face.

"What did you do?" Inuyasha asked him suspiciously.

They both suddenly burst into peals of laughter, crying and holding their sides.

"What the hell is the matter with you two?" Inuyasha exclaimed.

"Kagura…Kagura had a great idea," Shippou gasped for air, and wiped tears from his eyes. "She set off a few of those big firecrackers that Totosai gave us, then, while they were all confused and running around, I turned myself into a…into a…ah…what would you say it was?"

Kagura laughed.

"I have no idea. I've never seen anything like it. Maybe…an ogre, crossed with a dragon, crossed with a bear?"

The two of them collapsed again.

"You should've seen their faces," Shippou managed to wheeze.

"They're probably still running!" Kagura gloated.

"Shippou," Sango chided him.

"What?" his eyes widened in innocence. "I didn't hurt them, not really, not permanently. If they're working with Naraku, they deserved worse."

"What about the fire?" Inuyasha asked them, annoyed.

"Oh, that just happened because of the firecrackers, I guess," Shippou shrugged. "Everything is so dry. The snow will help put it out."

"Right," Miroku groaned. "The snow."

"So do we have a plan here?" Nobunaga cut in.

Shippou straightened and took a deep breath, his face suddenly serious as he looked down on the valley.

"Let me go in first."

"Are you crazy?"

"Inuyasha, do you _have_ to argue with me about _everything_?"

Inuyasha put a finger on his chin in a display of serious consideration.

"Now that you mention it," he said, "it's one of my most important responsibilities."

"What did you have in mind, Shippou-sama?" Nobunaga asked.

"I just want to be the first to say hello," he answered. "I'll fly low over them, let them start to think that they have more than Sesshoumaru to deal with."

"What's the point in that?" Inuyasha demanded.

"It's called _style,_ Inuyasha," Shippou answered with a superior little sniff. "You wouldn't understand."

Several nearby wolf demons snickered.

"You little—

"Why don't we work out a signal?" Nobunaga interrupted again. "Do you still have any of those firecrackers?"

"A few, why?"

"Go ahead and do your fly-over, then set one off somewhere near the front line. That will distract them and we'll come running at their side."

"Sounds like a plan to me," the fox demon said. "Everyone else wait here."

"Give us about thirty minutes," Nobunaga told him.

Shippou nodded and in half a second he was gone.

Inuyasha stared after him for a moment, then shook his head.

"Miroku," he said, "I want you and Sango to go to the house. Go the way the wolf demons came."

"What do you mean? Why?" Sango asked.

"Do you really think you can do that much here?" he asked.

"Nobunaga is here," she pointed out. "There are plenty of humans preparing to fight."

"That's different."

"I don't see how."

He looked her in the eye.

"Listen, I don't feel right about those girls being in that houses alone. Won't you go?"

Sango and Miroku exchanged a long look.

"Alright Inuyasha," Miroku said. "We'll go now then. Be careful."

"You too," Inuyasha told them. "Make sure you stay out of Sesshoumaru's way as much as you can."

They nodded and departed, making their way through the trees and down the hill with slow care.

Inuyasha turned to watch Shippou's wings beat in heavy, regular strokes over the fields, a black and ominous shape set against the sunset. Shinme put a hand on his shoulder.

"I will depart now," she told him. "I will slip past the enemy to rejoin my kin, who have pulled back and are waiting for me on the west side of the river. When I hear the explosion, I will attack from the west as you do from the east. In this way, we can bring the most confusion and damage to our enemy."

Inuyasha nodded.

"Good luck," he said.

"I believe fortune is on our side tonight, Inuyasha, son of Ichiro the Great."

She gave one little wave, then she vanished in a blur, and he could see no trace of her, though he thought he heard the faint thunder of horse hooves.

Minutes dragged by, and he put his hand on his sword hilt, somewhat unconsciously, and looked over the teeming mob below. He was beginning to work out the first moves in his mind when the electrifying presence of a powerful demon rang in his ears like a scream. It felt as though it was about to drop out of the sky onto their heads. One moment, he sensed the wolf demons pick up their ears, and he heard Kagura take in a sharp breath, and in the next he felt a blast of energy, like a small sun, came down right beside him.

Inuyasha drew his sword and the weapon responded immediately, transforming into the formidable steel fang of his father. The edge of it clanged against another sword. Over the singing of the blades he heard a few cries of dismay from nearby and saw Sesshoumaru standing on the other side of the steel.

Inuyasha hesitated.

"I thought you were Sesshoumaru," he said to the newcomer. "You sure look like him."

The stranger was tall and slender, with a wild mane of white hair. His wore plain, even threadbare clothing that was open and loose at the chest, despite the cold. The sword in his hand was a simple blade, battered and notched and rusted in a few places, with a hilt that had been mended and re-mended many times. Inuyasha was struck with the notion that this demon was what Sesshoumaru would have been, had he gone insane in his youth and associated from then on only with wild dogs and squirrels.

"Who are you?" the stranger demanded. "Why are you here? Are you with the Tsuchigumo?"

Inuyasha scowled and pushed on the stranger's blade, disengaging from him and taking a step back, answering,

"Inuyasha. To fight. Hell no."

The stranger's eyes widened, and for a moment he gaped at him openly. Then he collected himself and shook his head, sheathing his sword.

"Is it my fate to find every one of you people," he demanded, "wandering around the wild like lost donkeys?"

"What?" Inuyasha spluttered.

"Where are the others?" the dog demon asked, looking around.

"What others?"

"You know, Sango, Miroku, Shippou."

Inuyasha stared at him.

"And you are…?" Kagura asked him.

The dog demon noticed her for the first time. He eyed her up and down and grinned, then moved closer to her, edging past the fuming Inuyasha.

"Well," he said. "Aren't you a pretty little thing?"

Kagura was speechless.

He bowed to her in a florid display.

"My name is Tamotsu," he declared. "I am cousin to Sesshoumaru, Lord of the West, and am his only living relative."

"Well that's just plain not true," Inuyasha muttered.

"Oh, right," Tamotsu laughed. "I meant, the only one he would own."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

"Are you here to fight us or not?"

"Does it look like I want to fight you?" Tamotsu responded. "I just thought I'd attack from here. I guess you had the same idea."

"We're waiting on a signal from Shippou," Kagura told him, pointing to the sky.

He followed her hand with his eyes.

"_That's_ Shippou?" he asked in amazement.

"Yeah, that's him," Inuyasha growled.

"I thought he was a fox demon."

"He's in disguise."

Having decided that the weird version of Sesshoumaru was not an immediate threat, Inuyasha turned his back on him to concentrate on the work ahead.

"But," the dog demon went on, "Kagome told me that he was just a little guy."

"He grew," Inuyasha muttered absently.

Kagura, however, a little quicker on her feet, grabbed the Tamotsu's kimono immediately.

"What did you say?" she whispered, her face white.

"I said," he answered with exaggerated diction, "But Kagome told me that he was a just a little guy."

Inuyasha's heart and blood and brain all froze for a thrilling, terrifying, towering second. He took a step back, reaching out his hand, as if to find support. Nobunaga had the presence of mind to take hold of it.

"Steady now," the young samurai said. "Steady."

"Where is she?" Kagura shook Tamotsu's robe, less rough than frantic. "Where is she?"

With unruffled calm, the dog demon pointed at the house.

"In there," he said.

Inuyasha had knelt to the ground, lowering his head. Kagura walked to the edge of the escarpment, looking over the Hyouden.

"Inuyasha!" she cried. "Shouldn't we go?"

"No," he muttered, his head still bowed.

"What? But I…"

She took another step and he grabbed her wrist.

"We still have a fight here," he said, standing up. "It's just more important now to win it."

She looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.

"Right," she exhaled a long breath. "You are right."

"How long do you think we have before Shippou signals us?" Inuyasha asked Nobunaga.

"About fifteen minutes, maybe less."

Inuyasha nodded, then turned back to Tamotsu.

"Tell us as much as you can."

Sesshoumaru stood on his balcony as the rabble completed its slow crawl across the fields. They moved in blocks, each containing twenty rows of twenty demons, the same black, hairy, spindly things he had been exterminating in small bands for the past three months. At the head of each company, an ogre, or something of that sort, rode on a beast of burden twice the size of an cow, which looked somewhat like a donkey crossed with a tiger. Behind each ogre, one or two of the Tsuchigumo carried drums which they beat at a steady pace, as if reminding the rest of them how to march along.

Right foot, left foot. Right foot, left foot.

At last, as the sun was sinking behind the western hills, the enemy arrived at some imaginary line where they decided to stop, about a hundred feet from the walls. Sesshoumaru noticed the shadow of a large bird circling over their heads, and he wondered if he should kill it first. It did not take long, however, to see that this strange creature was no friend to the Tsuchigumo. Some of them even tried to throw spears and knives at it, but the bird flew far too high and they only succeeded in hurting themselves or others when the weapons fell back to the earth.

An exceptionally large ogre, on an exceptionally large steed, rode to the head of the force and dismounted. He put himself a few yards before his men and turned, silencing them with one hand.

"Well?" he called up.

His voice was like gravel, and Jaken, who was peering over the edge, could not believe that such a misshapen creature was capable of speech.

He was met with nothing but the soft sigh of a cold wind, the only sound to be heard over the desolate valley.

"We have come to engage the might of the one named Sesshoumaru," the ogre continued. "He who has the temerity to call himself Lord of the West."

Silence.

"I see no lord here," he answered, spitting on the ground. "Only one stray mongrel hiding in a hovel."

Jaken grit his teeth. He pulled himself up over the balustrade, ready to retort, when the entire terrace was shaken so violently that he stumbled back again. He looked up and saw that the enormous bird had landed, its brown wings drumming in the air and its claws screeching on the stone rail like knives. A few crumbs of the granite fell to the ground. The bird looked down at the ogre and screamed at him through a golden beak that was curved, sharp, and vicious.

"So, is this your house then?" the ogre demanded. "You little fox brat!"

Jaken stared at the raptor in stupefaction.

"It couldn't be!" he gasped.

"Haven't you had enough?" the ogre went on. "Did we not teach you a lesson by the river?"

Sesshoumaru studied the bird. He was sure he had never seen it before, but it felt familiar, and a startling suspicion was beginning to dawn on him. He watched the air around it shimmered like a puddle of oil in summer, until a young fox demon was in its place, perched with balance and ease on the ledge. He wore a golden vest of fur over a plain, white kimono, which was tucked into blue hakama. His thick and wavy hair was flaming red and, left loose in the cold wind, it floated about his face almost as though he were under water. He turned his head and looked into Sesshoumaru's face with eyes as green as summer grass, and Sesshoumaru had no more doubt.

"Yo!" he said, smiling. "Sesshoumaru-sama. I hope you are well. I've been meaning to come visit you for a while but, well, you know how it is."

"Shippou, wasn't it?" Sesshoumaru replied calmly.

"I'm flattered that you remember."

"Why are you here?"

"I hope you don't mind," the kitsune replied with casual good nature, "but you see, I _really_ hate these guys. I owe them some licks, so…here I am!"

"I have no business with you today!" the ogre shouted. "Take that wind-sorceress slut of yours and go, while you still can!"

"Does he mean _Kagura_?" Jaken exclaimed.

"Yeah," Shippou muttered, his expression darkening, "he means Kagura, and it's the last thing he'll ever say."

He reached into his vest and withdrew something round that could fit into his fist. It looked almost like an acorn. Shippou cast a quick glance up into the trees that lined the eastern escarpment and, in one motion, he twisted the object and threw it at the feet of the captain ogre.

It exploded on impact. The force knocked Jaken back on his feet and he came up coughing and swearing and brushing dirt off his clothes. He climbed back to his spot to look out again, but where the ogre had stood he saw a black spot in the center of a bare patch of dirt surrounded by a ring of the flower petals.

A moment of stark silence followed, then the collection of Tsuchigumo screamed and beat their chest, and began running toward the walls. A second clamor rose to the east, and Jaken and Sesshoumaru saw a small army of humans and wolf demons pouring down the embankment, shouting and lifting weapons. The Tsuchigumo seemed to flinch in surprise and the captains scrambled to reorder their soldiers to meet the new attack. To the west, Sesshoumaru could see that the hordes of Karauma had circled around and doubled back on the Tsuchigumo's western flank in a fresh assault. All of this happened in the space of two breaths, and Sesshoumaru wondered who had seen fit to put so much planning into his defense without consulting him.

He could sense that Tamotsu was somewhere in the fray, and there were others that were familiar, but the sense of them drowned in the screaming blood.

Then he saw it. Two minutes after the kitsune had obliterated the enemy captain, a terrific force tore through the ranks of the Tsuchigumo like lightning rending a dead tree, sending splinters of the enemy in all directions.

"That…that was the Tessaiga, wasn't it?" Jaken's voice was almost sick.

"Oh yeah," Shippou laughed. "Inuyasha's here."

The kitsune began to transform again, lifted himself from the balcony and spreading his arms.

"Better hurry," he said to Sesshoumaru, "or there won't be any left for you."

The bird flew away from the house and over the fray, screaming again.

Sesshoumaru sighed, drawing his sword.

"Tell Rin I have ordered her to hide," he said to Jaken, "and tell the mikos to come out, if they intend to be of any use."

He was gone before he could hear Jaken's acquiescence. As Jaken turned to go into the house, he felt the first snowflake brush against his cheek.

The women were still in the kitchen, but they jumped to their feet, bows in hand, as soon as they saw him.

"You'd better bundle up," he said. "The snow has started."

"Great," Kagome groaned. "What else is going to happen today?"

She caught Jaken looking at her.

"What?" she asked him.

"Ah…nothing, it's nothing."

He turned to Rin. "Sesshoumaru-sama said you are to hide."

Rin got to her feet immediately.

"You cannot wear all that," Kikyou was saying to Kagome. "You will not be able to shoot."

Kagome had pulled on a second, or third, haori.

"But…"

"Just take the sleeves off," Jaken told her. "No one cares about those clothes."

Rin picked up a small knife from the table.

"Here, let me help you."

She tore off most of Kagome's sleeves, leaving only one layer on her arms, not counting the bandages Sesshoumaru had put on her.

"Thank you, Rin-chan," Kagome put her hand on the girl's arm, but did not look her in the eye. "Be careful, OK?"

Rin nodded, smiling. "Don't worry, Kagome-chan. Sesshoumaru-sama will take care of everything."

In the space of two heartbeats, Rin found herself standing in the kitchen alone. Checking for the eleventh time that she still had the dagger Sesshoumaru had given her, she picked up some dried plums, wrapped in bay leaves, and put the package in her pocket. Outside, the faint stir of the approaching enemy had been transformed into a roar that drowned out the sounds of gulls and ocean waves.

_I should have said…but now there's no time._

The woods at the edge of the escarpment thinned as they got closer to the smell of salt air. A wide, dirt path wound from the trees to the front door of the Hyouden. The front of the house faced a short expanse of lawn before ending at the edge of a high cliff, overlooking the sea. Unlike the north side, which was carved from the mountainside and towered over the valley of the river, the main entrance on the south side made the house appear small and modest. Ten feet from the door stood a tall red gate with a silver moon painted over the arch. A wrought iron ring was attached to one beam of this gate and a brass bell hung from it by a long rope.

Sango and Miroku approached with caution. By now, they could hear the clamor of fighting on the other side of the house. Hoping that Sesshoumaru would be too occupied to notice them, they made their way to the door, intent on walking in without knocking or announcing themselves, when they saw with a start that Higurashi and the girls were still outside. The four of them were huddled against the gate, trying in vain to protect themselves from the cold wind.

"What are you doing out here?" Miroku asked them. "Why didn't you go inside?"

Higurashi shook her head.

"I don't want to go in there," she answered.

"Everyone says that a dangerous demon lives here, and that he hates humans," Yuka said. "I'd rather take my chances and stay out here."

"That would be very foolish," Miroku answered. "Sesshoumaru is a possible threat, while the Tsuchigumo are a definite one."

They appeared unconvinced.

"There is nothing to stop the Tsuchigumo from coming around to this side of the house," Miroku went on, "except for the people fighting them, who may lose."

"If they lose, does it matter?" Yuka asked pointedly. "Won't we be dead no matter what?"

"The point is not to give up," Miroku answered, "but to keep trying to live. We will protect you as long as possible. You must come inside."

The four of them looked at each other, then Higurashi rose to her feet.

"Come on," she said to the others, "at least it'll be warmer in there."

Higurashi looked up as she passed the threshold. A small moon was painted in gold above the door. She shuddered.

_Last night I dreamt I went to the Hyouden again._

Rin opened the door to the main gallery of the house, and received the shock of her life to see someone she did not recognize standing on the other side. She only had time to see that it was a young man with short dark hair before she slammed the door closed again and jumped back, heart pounding. Her mind raced through the possibilities, and concluded that it must be someone like the men who came here before, like the one who had tried to drown her.

How clever of the enemy, to distract her lord with a horde of demons, only to send in small humans he would probably not notice!

Rin searched around the room for another way out, but there were only two. One was the door that led to the gardens, and it was of course barricaded. And anyway, it led only to the heart of the battle. The other was the window through which she could drop down to the lawn in front of the house, and perhaps make her way to safety, but it was also boarded shut.

_I'm trapped! I should have left sooner! What should I do? What should I do?_

What would Sesshoumaru-sama do? Sesshoumaru-sama would not be afraid. He would stand ready with his blade. She took out her small dagger and held it low, thinking she might be able to disembowel the intruder before he got his hands on her.

Miroku flinched away from the door with a startled exclamation.

"What is it?" Sango demanded. "What happened?"

"It was a woman," he answered. "She opened the door, then closed it again when she saw me."

"A woman? A human?"

"I only saw her for a second, but I think so."

"What should we do?" Yuka asked.

"I'm not sure," Sango answered. "I have a strange feeling, ever since we came in here…actually, as soon as I laid eyes on the house."

She feel silent.

"It must be Rin," Miroku said at last.

"Rin?"

"Who else would be here?" he pointed out. "It's been a long time since I've seen her, and I did not get a long look at her. She probably did not recognize me either."

"You could be right."

He pulled on the door. It did not take them more than a moment's glance to understand that the room served as the kitchen. It was a deep, low-beamed room with shelves tucked into one wall and a large fire pit in the center. The wall to the left had a window, and the far wall had a door, but both were blocked. A young woman stood fixing them with a stare. She was as slender as a sapling and her straight hair, as black as obsidian, reached halfway to her waist. She brandished a long knife with a curved tip.

"Stay back!" she shouted.

"Rin-chan?" Sango exclaimed.

The girl lowered the knife and her eyes widened. She looked them up and down several times.

"Sango-chan! Miroku-sama!"

Rin put the knife down on the wooden table and rushed toward them, leaping over a bench and several piles of blankets. She threw her arms around the two of them.

"I can't believe it!" she cried. "I just can't believe it! What are you doing here?"

"It's wonderful to see you again," Miroku laughed. "You've grown."

"We're looking for a place to hide," Sango told her. "For us, and for our friends."

She indicated Higurashi, Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka. Rin looked them over.

"They're just humans, right?"

Sango nodded.

"Well, Sesshoumaru-sama does not really like strangers in his house, but..."

"Rin-chan," Higurashi stepped forward, bowing. "We are no strangers. I know we have never met, but I recognized you as soon as I laid eyes on you."

Rin looked at her with a blank expression, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, but I…"

Higurashi bowed again.

"I am the Seeress," she said. "As you are the Bearer."

Rin's eyes widened again.

"Oh," she whispered. "I see."

"Rin-chan?" Sango looked at her. "Does that mean anything to you?"

Rin nodded slowly.

"Yes, I am the Bearer. I bear Kagura's heart."

The others stared at her in amazement.

"What?" Miroku laughed again. "I'm sorry, I don't think I understood you."

Rin looked around the room impatiently.

"It's a long story and I don't have time," she answered. "My lord gave me strict instructions, and I've taken too long to carry them out as it is."

"Your lord?" Miroku rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. Sesshoumaru-sama."

"He sent word for me to go to the room downstairs to hide."

"Downstairs?"

"Yes, in the cellar. It's dug into the mountain rock and Sesshoumaru-sama ordered me to hide there. I must go now."

"May we go with you?"

"Follow me," Rin nodded. "I think…I think we have a lot to talk about anyway."

"Wait!" Sango shouted.

Everyone stopped and turned back.

"I can't wait," Rin fretted.

Sango pointed her finger to a corner, and Miroku gasped.

"What is it?" Higurashi asked.

"That's the Hiraikotsu!" Miroku exclaimed. "We lost it that day…on the Plateau."

"How did it get here?"

"Tamotsu-sama found it," Rin answered. "The day…that same day, of the explosion."

"Are we so near to it?" Sango asked her.

"I'm not sure," Rin said. "I've never seen it. But I did see the dust and smoke from here."

"Who is Tamotsu?" Higurashi asked.

"Sesshoumaru-sama's cousin," Rin shook her head. "Listen, I really have to go."

"That's what I've been feeling," Sango murmured to herself. "It was the Hiraikotsu, calling to me."

"What do you mean?" Yuka asked. "It _called_ you?"

"The Hiraikotsu is made of demon bones," Miroku explained. "It has something of a…presence, and it is attached to Sango."

Sango, meanwhile, was walking towards it, reaching out her hand. When they touched, both the girl and the bone boomerang trembled. A low hum zinged through the air in a short flash.

"I know, I know," the young woman whispered.

She lifted the tremendous weapon above her head and brought it down again. The elbow of it went into the floor with a punctuated crack.

"I can still lift it, Miroku," she said, looking him in the eyes.

He was silent for a moment, then he sighed and went to her, pulling her into an embrace. She put her arms around him, grabbing his shoulders, and she lifted her face. He clasped his lips onto hers fiercely. The others, except Rin, blushed and averted their eyes. Sango pulled away and took a deep breath, and when she spoke, her voice was like steel.

"One more thing before you go," she said to Rin. "Is there somewhere in this house where I might find some cloths that I could borrow?"

"In the upstairs rooms, there are some trunks of cloths that no one cares about," Rin answered. "Go up the stairs and turn to the left."

"Thank you."

Sango stayed with them until they got to the stairs where, with one last squeeze of his hand, she went up while Miroku went down.

Rin led them down the stairs, which ended at a dirt floor in a hall of stone walls. They went straight into the dark tunnels. Rin stopped once and went into a room, and when she reemerged moments later she was carrying a lighted torch.

"This way," she said. "Hurry!"

They went through a set of doors that, unlike the rest of the doors in the house, did not slide but swung open. Stepping into a room with a stone floor they were hit with the smell of damp rock and they could hear the sounds of trickling water. Rin's torch threw shimmering shadows on the walls.

When Miroku walked into the room, he found himself standing near several steaming pools. He blinked, and the light shimmered and somehow shifted. The edges of the water, of the walls and floors, of the women around him, slid away in a blur. He blinked again.

Someone was in the water, a man. He was holding someone down. Miroku saw a fan of jet black hair floating above a struggling figure. From behind him he heard someone shout, in fear, or rage, or despair. His stomach lurched and for a second he thought he'd throw up. A figure appeared in front of him, and Miroku could not understand where they had come from, until he realized that they had just ran through him.

It was Sesshoumaru. He had his sword drawn. The man saw him and tried to run away.

Miroku cried out and closed his eyes. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

He heard someone crying, wailing, and, looking for the sound, he saw a woman holding someone, and Sesshoumaru standing over her. When she lifted her face, he saw that it was ravaged with weeping, and a shock ran through his spine when he recognized her.

"_They killed her, Sesshoumaru," _Kikyou sobbed._ "They think we're the monsters now."_

Miroku looked at the body she was holding. It was Kagome, limp and lifeless, eyes bulging, naked, and with a knife between her shoulder blades. He screamed and shut his eyes.

"Miroku-sama! Miroku-sama!" someone was calling him.

He opened his eyes again, terrified of what he'd see, but there was only Rin looking at him, holding her torch.

"Miroku-sama! What is the matter?"

He looked around, blinking back tears, and shook his head dumbly.

"Come on," she said, taking his hand. "The others have gone in. We must go too!"

He let her pull him into a room where lit torches hung on the walls. There were wooden crates piled in one corner. Miroku stumbled to one of the walls and lowered himself to the floor.

"Are you alright?" Higurashi knelt beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I heard you call out."

Miroku could not answer. He was devastated by the certainly of that vision. It was no illusion, no sickness of the brain, though goodness knows he would have it coming. He had not just seen it; he had felt it. The agony and wrath of that memory was etched into the stone walls.

"Rin-san," he whispered.

She came to him and knelt beside Higurashi.

"You said there was a lot we had to talk about. I think you're right. I'm listening."

Kagome emerged into the cold air and took only one brief glance at the battle below. If she studied it, if she let it sink in how outnumbered they were, how horrible were the beasts that were set upon them, she would run back into the house in stark terror and never come out. She'd probably die in there, in flames and ruin.

_That may happen anyway._

But at least she'd take out as many enemies as she could. She was determined to do so, not just because they probably came from Naraku, but because she'd go to any lengths to avoid dying with that insufferable Sesshoumaru having all the proof he needed that she was truly useless.

She put an arrow against the rest on her bow and drew.

Now she had no choice but to look, to find a target. The field below was a blur of bodies and dust. Here and there she saw, and felt, the release of a tremendous demonic energy, and assumed it was Tamotsu or Sesshoumaru.

"Imouto," Kikyou said. "Look!"

"What is it?"

"Allies, apparently."

Kagome lowered her bow.

"You're right," she said, moving closer to the edge. "Who are they?"

"It looks like some are human."

"Where did they come from?"

"I also sense other demons."

"Are they…are they good demons?"

Kikyou looked amused.

"They are fighting our enemy, if that is what you mean."

"I hardly know how to aim at anything," Kagome fretted.

"Do you see those large ogres?" Kikyou pointed.

"Yes."

"Tamotsu-sama said that they were the leaders. They make the best targets. Aim for them."

"I'll try," Kagome said doubtfully.

"You may try, if you wish," Kikyou said, quite seriously. "I intend to kill them."

Kagome snorted, even as she drew the string of her weapon. That was such a Kikyou thing to say.

She found one ogre, closer to the house. He seemed to be considering breaking away from a segment of his minions to attempt the wall.

"Elbow, grip, slant," she whispered.

The string hummed, the arrow whistled, the ogre died. His body disintegrated as her purification energy drowned him.

"Hey, I did it!" she exclaimed, delighted. "Did you see that?"

"That was wonderful," Kikyou commented, after releasing her fifth shot. "Just do that, five hundred more times."

Kagome sighed and set a stem against the arrow rest again.

"One thing, however," Kikyou said. "You need to control how much of your power that you release. It is not needful to use so much to kill one minor demon. You will tire sooner."

"You never taught me how to do that!" Kagome accused.

"Now is a good time to practice."

Kagome was about to disagree when a cold shadow passed swiftly over them. Kikyou changed her stance and pointed her arrow to the sky. Kagome looked up and saw something large circling the air above the battle.

"What is that?" she exclaimed, squinting at it.

It was difficult to see in the snowy twilight, but due to the creature's shape, and the piercing, metallic sound it made when it screamed, Kagome concluded that it was some kind of bird.

"I think it is a bird demon," Kikyou said, following it with the deadly tip of her arrow.

"Wait," Kagome stopped her. "Look at it!"

The creature screamed again, then dove to the ground. Its powerful talons grabbed at least half a dozen spider demons, making an ugly, spurting, crunching sound that Kagome could hear from over a hundred feet away. Most of them were killed instantly by the piercing claws. Dead or not, they were dropped from a great height onto the heads of their comrades.

"I think it's on our side," Kagome said, feeling a little sick.

Kikyou shrugged and turned her arrow against the ground enemies again. This time, when she released, the arrow went into the army without hitting one creature, and Kagome thought she had missed. But the arrow went through their ranks like a poisonous viper, exuding a purifying wave that took out at least twenty Tsuchigumo at once.

"Show off," Kagome grumbled, setting another arrow.

Nobunaga lopped off a spider demon's head and thanked the gods that Nazuna was somewhere far away and safe. A grasping, clawing hand grabbed his wrist and he cut it off without looking at it. He was surrounded by wolf demons and spider demons, and he wondered how in the hell he ended up in such a situation. He remembered meeting Inuyasha and Kagome on that spring morning so many years ago.

_If I had known then what I know now, I would have run far, far away._

He knew that was not at all true. Speaking of Inuyasha, where was that half-demon anyway?

He removed his sword from a monster's lung (at least, he assumed the lungs were there), just in time to spring away and dodge the fall of a massive club. A red-eyed oni stood over him, grinning and slobbering. The club came down again and Nobunaga stepped aside calmly. The force stirred his hair, but he stood still. Instead of swinging to the side, which would have been smart, the demon lifted his weapon high above his head, which was not. Without hesitation, Nobunaga slid his blade into the demon's gut and tore it open. It roared with rage and pain and fell back.

There were so many of these nasty things, but they were so dumb.

"Watch out, Nobunaga!"

He heard a voice come from somewhere, and he turned. Several spider demons had focused on him and he saw that he was alone. He prepared for his first strike, which he hoped would kill at least two of them, when a force of wind almost knocked him down. He saw a confusion of dust, feathers, and blood. The bird—Shippou, he reminded himself—crashed into the monsters and tore most of them apart. He was high in the air again on a strong wind in less than a moment.

"Thank you!" Nobunaga called after him.

Taroumaru got lost somewhere between the river, the mountains, and the end of the world. Left alone at the tender age of fourteen to fend for himself, he assumed he was grown, was all the man he needed to be, because he needed to be.

Back when it was still raining, he set out into the broken country, bereft of his heritage and a lord in name only. He stole to eat, killed to survive, and sometimes to show mercy. Somewhere in the mud he experienced his first woman—a young, pallid thing with little life in her. She was gone when he woke and he said to himself that he was glad, in that gritty, dog-eat-dog, stand alone way he thought he was supposed to. In truth, he was crushed.

He said to himself that his own sword was the only wife he needed.

The follies of youth remain even when the joys of it are stolen away.

He fought bravely at the riverside where he first met Shippou and Kagura, and continued fighting a rearguard action all the way to the caverns. When the call to march to battle again came, Taroumaru followed without hesitation. He ran down the escarpment into the Fields of Eternal Snow with a roar of defiance.

He lasted about twenty minutes, and that was only because he could not get away any faster. There were just too many of them. Monsters, nightmarish shadows, pressed in from all directions. The ferocity of the wolf demons frightened him, even though he knew they were supposed to be on his side. He saw himself stranded in an ocean of demon blood and demon hatred.

_What am I doing here?_

_How did I get here?_

Taroumaru broke away and finally got to the other side of the large house. Here, the din of the chaos and death faded somewhat, and he could hear the pitiful call of gulls. He hid himself under a low, dense cypress which grew against the front wall, and wondered what he would say when someone found him there.

He eyed the sword that lay discarded on the ground beside him. It was not as long, not as bright and keen, as it seemed six months ago. He considered how he might wound himself in a way that was convincing but the least painful.

The follies of youth remain.

Inuyasha believed that the tide of the battle had turned decidedly in their favor. The humans and wolf demons were taking out a fair number of the monsters, but between the (rather surprising) brutality of Shippou, the relentlessness of Kagura's tearing wind, and the sheer overwhelming force of the three dog demons, they were decimating whole regiments of the enemy. The fields of eternal snow were trampled in a mire of blood and mud and the flower petals could hardly be seen anywhere anymore. The stench of it was unbelievable. Every now and then his sharp ears picked up the last cry of a dying human, or wolf demon, and he allowed his heart one second of agony before moving on. He released the Wind Scar so many times it had become a part of his body, as though he were merely striking out with his fist. He sent it tearing through the enemy again.

The shake of the ground warned him, and he turned to see the blade of an oversized sword coming down on his head. He dodged it and made ready to swing again.

"Watch your head, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha ducked without thinking, and he heard a sound he had not heard in many months: the unmistakable whirr of the Hiraikotsu singing in the air. He straightened in time to see the ogre's two halves twitching on the ground and Sango catching her weapon above her head.

"Where the hell did you find that?" he asked, walking to her.

She was panting and flushed, and Inuyasha thought to himself that it must be difficult for her to handle that weapon after all this time, but he did not say it. She was also wearing different clothing, dark and tight, like her old demon-slayer outfit.

"It was in the house," she answered, puffing. "Can you believe it?"

"At this point, I can believe anything," Inuyasha answered, resting his sword on his shoulder for a moment. "Where's Miroku?"

"He stayed in the house with the girls, and with Rin."

Inuyasha's immediate thought was to wonder whether it was a good idea to leave that perverted monk with so many females, but he did not say that either. Sango lifted her weapon and flung it into a crowd of Tsuchigumo bearing down on them. After it had sliced through them, sending them flying in pieces, she caught it again.

"Nice work," Inuyasha grunted, before continuing his own.

The fighting was not difficult. It was mystifying why anyone would send such a force against him. They had made a show of being threatening, coming to the gates in ordered regiments with oni captains he had never seen before, but they were still the mindless mob they had always been, and killing them was like brushing ants off his shoulder. Sesshoumaru killed a dozen with one swing of his sword. A strange light broke his concentration for a second, until he realized it was a sacred arrow, sent by one of the mikos to kill something not too far from him.

A rather large ogre, somewhat like the captain that had been the first to die, came and stood in the spot where he had just annihilated a handful of Tsuchigumo. It looked at him and grinned. Sesshoumaru watched with dull disinterest as it opened its mouth. At first, it seemed to be yawning, but the mouth opened so wide that it lost the shape of its head. Out of this gaping maw, the ogre regurgitated a viscous, inky liquid. The substance formed first into little pebbles, shiny and black, and then into a dozen Tsuchigumo, who hit the ground running.

"How tiresome," he commented, before killing the ogre.

Kagura twirled her staff in her hand like a fire dancer. She was almost enjoying this, she had to admit, though each death of a human or a wolf demon filled her with an indignant outrage. Their loses were not terrible, considering how badly they were outnumbered, but to Kagura, each death of an ally was a tiny victory for Naraku. Although they had not proven it, she had come to assume that the Tsuchigumo were a creation of her former master. But even if they were not, it would make no difference because anything she lost, at any time, was a victory for that monster, as far as she was concerned. Anything that hurt her, anything that so much as bothered her, was a manifestation of him in her mind. In her heart she believed that, should a thousand years pass after his death, it would always be so.

Even as she killed the vermin around her, she wondered if she were as free as she thought.

_What if he made me so that I could not be? Maybe it's a built-in failure?_

Her thoughts scattered when she felt a sizzle of heat and electricity so close to her head that she covered an ear, thinking it had been burned. She noticed the arrow in time to see it sink into the forehead of an ogre that was near her. Kagura scolded herself viciously that she had let the thing get that close to her because she was not focusing. If not for that arrow, she might have been killed, or at least hurt.

"Arrow?" she whispered.

Kagura turned and looked up. On the ledge that overlooked the northern field, where she had seen Sesshoumaru just hours before, she saw Kagome, standing with her bow drawn. Her hair was tied back and the ponytail whipped in the cold wind. She was wearing a dark kimono and hakama, except that the sleeves were white. Kagura could see, even from this distance, that she had white bandages wrapped around her hands and arms.

The girl shot again, and the arrow whistled through the air, hitting something Kagura did not see. She realized that the miko had not knowingly saved her, had not seen her at all, but was only shooting at the largest targets in her range. She reminded herself that Kagome was human, and her vision in the growing dark and snow must be limited. The moon was full, but the snow clouds blocked most of its light.

Kagura knew that Inuyasha must already be aware that Kagome was up there. She marveled to herself that he was able to focus on fighting. After all, it had been at least half a year!

"To hell with it," she muttered. "I'm not as strong as him."

Kagura lifted herself into the air, left the fighting behind, and landed on the stone balustrade behind Kagome. She was so close she could smell her. She could also smell the build and release of purifying powers, which was something like a swell of boiling water, pure but dangerous. Kagura did not announce herself. The idea of being this close to her after all this time left her breathless. The last time she had seen her, she was running into certain death in Naraku's arms; she was trying to save her!

Kagura felt a peculiar tightening in her throat and her eyes blurred.

_What is this feeling?_

"Kagome! Look out!"

Kagura flinched, barely in time to dodge the arrow that buzzed in front of her nose. Gasping, she jumped back and threw up her arms.

"Don't shoot!"

Kagome turned in fearful surprise, shoving her ponytail out of her eyes. She stopped and stared, her mouth falling open.

"Oh my god," she gasped in a strangled voice.

She looked into Kagura's eyes.

"Kagome…" Kagura whispered.

Kagome seemed unable to move or say anything. Kagura glanced sideways and noticed Kikyou for the first time. After an initial start, she said:

"Long time no see. Kinda thought you were dead."

"I got better," Kikyou responded.

Kagura stared at her, then shook her head.

"Whatever." She turned back to Kagome. "She's here with you?"

"Yes," Kagome answered, her face still shocked. "She's been taking care of me."

"That's sweet. I can just imagine how warm and fuzzy Inuyasha will be to hear it."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed. "Have you seen him?"

"What, are you blind?" Kagura pointed to the battle. "He's out there fighting."

Kagome whipped her head around. She leaned over the edge.

"I don't see him," she cried, panicked.

"Well, there's so much going on. But believe me, he's out there."

Kagome turned back to her.

"Have you been with him this whole time?"

"Not at all. I did not see him until a few days ago."

"Oh," Kagome murmured, looking back over the field.

Kikyou shot another arrow.

"How can you be so calm?" Kagome demanded. "Didn't you hear her? Inuyasha is here!"

"I have known he was here," Kikyou replied without looking at her.

"What?"

"I am quite amazed that you did not sense him. He is not only here, but he is fighting, most vigorously, releasing a great deal of his demonic energy. I would sense it if I were miles away, let alone being right here on top of him."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I wished to avoid this conversation," Kikyou said. "We do not have the luxury to indulge in sentiment. When the enemy is vanquished, we may rejoice in all our reunions."

"You haven't changed a bit," Kagura commented.

"She's changed a lot," Kagome said, with some heat.

"Either way," Kagura shrugged. "She is right."

Kagura stood on the narrow railing, looking down at them.

"I'd like nothing better to throw myself at your feet," she said to Kagome. "But the other miko is right. I should get back."

Just then, they heard the shrill cry of the bird again. They looked out and saw that it was struggling to stay in the air. Its great wings clawed at the air, shuddering and folding inward.

"I think it's been hit!" Kagome cried. "It's injured."

The blood drained from Kagura's face as the bird plummeted to the ground.

"No!" she shouted.

She was gone the next instant. Kagome had not seen her move. It was not that Kagura was fast. She was beside her one moment, and somewhere else the next.

"The bird has transformed," Kikyou said.

Kagome saw that Kagura was carrying away a body. She could tell nothing about it, except that the person was wounded. In another instant, Kagura had returned, reappearing where she had been before. She knelt on the stone floor of the terrace, holding up the body of a young man. He wore a white kimono and blue hakama, stained everywhere with dark blood, and his mass of hair was the reddest Kagome had ever seen. A long spear was lodged in his shoulder, and it shuddered and quivered when he breathed.

"Oh no," Kagura cried. "No, no, no, no, no."

She turned to Kikyou.

"Should I take the spear out?"

Kikyou shook her head. "I really have no idea."

"We should get Sesshoumaru," Kagome suggested. "He knows more about healing demons than we do."

"He is somewhat preoccupied at the moment," Kikyou said. "Getting to him will not be easy."

"There is no need."

Sesshoumaru was standing over them. Kagura looked up at him, her eyes desperate.

"I see you are doing well for yourself," he said to her.

Kagura could not answer.

"I saw the wounding when it happened, and you carrying the kitsune here," he said.

Kagome's mind was a tempest of confusion. The reintroduction of Kagura, the knowledge of Inuyasha being near, raced through her mind like a terrific avalanche down a mountainside, but the word "kitsune" pulled her neck back as if on a chain. She knelt beside Kagura and pushed the demon's hair away from his face. A moment or two passed, but it felt like an hour to her. She dimly heard other voices. Kagura was saying something in a high-pitched, urgent tone. The deep voice of Sesshoumaru vibrated in her chest. Kagome did not hear what they said. She only heard the well of agony building in her, like a kettle before it boiled. Her chest opened and released it. Kagome screamed. She sobbed and clung to the wounded fox demon.

"Shippou!" she cried. "Shippou! No, it can't be. Oh please, no. Shippou!"

He was slipping from her grip. She held tighter, but could not resist whatever force was taking him away. No, someone was pulling _her_ away. Then she could hear a voice besides her own, and the world came back from the suffocating landslide.

"Kagome, it will be alright," someone was saying. "It is just his shoulder. Sesshoumaru will fix it."

Kagome could not answer in any coherent way. A weight on her chest crushed her and she found herself breathing rapidly, never feeling that she could get enough air.

"Kagome, damn it, there is no time for this now."

Kagome tried to get away from whatever was holding her, tried to get back to Shippou. She saw that Sesshoumaru was pinning the kitsune down with his foot while taking hold of the spear with one hand. She struggled again. How could he be so rough? Didn't he know this was just a kid? He's a baby!

"He is _not_ a baby," Kikyou told her, and she realized she had been shouting.

Kagome did not answer and she continued to struggle to get free. Kikyou turned her around roughly and slapped her across the face. She stood very still, holding her cheek.

"Enough!" Kikyou hissed.

Her face was only an inch or two from her own.

"There are still enemies before the gate," she went on. "There are still people out there dying. Do not forget, for one moment, that this siege is happening because of you."

Kagome looked up at her, stunned far more by those words than by the blow.

"Naraku sent this enemy here because of you. He either knows that you are here, or he does not want Sesshoumaru to help you."

"That's not my fault!" Kagome protested.

"Of course it is not," Kikyou answered. "But the least you could do is kill as many as you can."

She shoved the bow back into her hands.

"Now, cease this sniveling at once and get back to work."

Kagome glared at her, but she took the bow. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the gaze of Sesshoumaru.

"If she is unable to fight, it is not important," he said, looking away. "The threat is of no real consequence."

The look Kagome gave him was venomous. It was bad enough that he refused to admit he needed any help at all, but he had just insinuated that she was useless, and that the death of the humans and wolf demons before his gate was insignificant.

"What about them?" Kikyou pointed to the north.

Kagome turned and saw large, dark shapes, ambling toward them through the snow. They were larger than any moving thing she had ever seen. Through the pale moonlight and the falling snow, she could only see the outline of them. They were similar to oxen, but each the size of a large house.

"What is it?" Kagura asked from where she still knelt, holding Shippou.

"I don't know, some kind of demon," Kagome answered. "Nothing that large could be natural to Japan."

Sesshoumaru eyed the monsters for a few moments, then he was gone in a quick breath.

"Kagura...what is it?" Shippou croaked.

Kagome's attention was pulled again.

"Shippou!" she cried, rushing back to his side.

"It's nothing," Kagura answered him. "Don't worry about it."

"You're lying," he laughed, then coughed.

"Shippou..." Kagome whispered.

His eyes rolled to the side, then widened. He lifted himself on his elbows.

"Don't strain yourself!" Kagura exclaimed.

"Is that...?" he whispered. "It's you."

"Yes...yes, it's me."

"Kagome," he whispered. "I...I can't..."

He gasped and grabbed his shoulder.

"Please, Shippou-chan, please relax," Kagome put her hands on his shoulders.

He let himself fall back into Kagura's arms again, then he reached out and took a strand of Kagome's hair, pulling it through his fingers.

"I waited so long to see you again," he sighed. "And now I think I've gone and gotten myself killed."

"You're not dying," Kagome said.

Large tears rolled down her cheeks.

They all felt the growing rumble in the ground.

"What is that?" Shippou tried to look around again. "Kagura?"

"I'm going to take you in the house, then I'll take care of it. Don't worry."

"No, no I can fight."

Before they could stop him he managed to get to his feet, and he stood there, swaying and looking around with wide eyes. Kagome realized that he was losing his grip on reality.

"Shippou, please, let me take care of you, for once," Kagura begged him.

Kagome suddenly remembered her visions during the rains, before she awoke in the Hyouden. She saw the two of them standing in the rain, surrounded by all the ruin of that day.

"The two of you have been together all this time," she said.

Kagura looked startled, then she nodded.

Jaken came out onto the balcony again, though Kagome had not noticed him leave. He did not say anything, but went straight to the young fox demon and put his hand over his mouth. Shippou started for a moment, then his eyes closed and he collapsed again into Kagura.

"What did you do?" Kagome almost screeched at the little toad demon.

"It won't hurt him," he shouted back. "It just made him sleep. He can't fight, and we don't have time to argue with him."

He cast aside a piece of cloth and then looked at Kagura.

"Take him inside. If I were you, I'd put him in the cellar, down two floors. It's the safest place."

Kagura gaped at him. "I...I..." she stumbled.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" he snapped.

Then he waved a hand over them.

"If you don't care if he lives or dies, it's nothing to me," he shrugged.

Kagura lifted the wounded fox demon and ran into the house. Jaken went to the railing and peered over it onto the battle below.

"I'm going down there," he said to no one in particular.

"Down there?" Kagome exclaimed. "You can't!"

"I can and I will," he said. "I can't stay in this house anymore. I think things have taken a turn for the worse."

He pointed out to the field. The moon washed the land in white, and they could see the struggling hordes, and the bodies of the slain, and on the edge of the battle those large shapes were coming closer. They moved like elephants, and they had picked up their pace. A line of them charged across the river, which was to them a mere puddle, and their feet crushed foe and ally alike.

"This is bad," Kagome said.

"I will go below as well," Kikyou said.

"What?" Jaken started. "Are you crazy?"

"I will need more power to take those things down," she answered. "I need to be closer. I do not wish to wait until they are on top of the house."

"Now you listen here," Jaken stamped his feet. "My lord will protect this house just fine. But he's gone to a lot of trouble to keep you people alive."

No one paid any attention to him. Kikyou grabbed an extra quiver and she filled it, slinging two full ones over her shoulder.

"Wait, Kikyou," Kagome started. "I don't think that's a good idea. I should at least go with you."

"Absolutely out of the question," the other miko turned to her. "Stay here, and continue to do what you can."

"But—

"Imouto," Kikyou's tone was dangerous, "if you do not obey I will knock you unconscious and lay you next to your fox demon."

Kagome swallowed hard and took a step back.

"That is better," Kikyou said. "Inuyasha would never forgive me if something happened to you."

In the next minute she disappeared into the house, with Jaken running behind her. Kagome looked around and realized she was alone. Her mind whirled with images and voices and desperate hopes and fears, so much that her head felt swollen, a feeling exacerbated by the biting cold. She picked up more arrows, and her numb fingers were small and hollow, like the bones of a bird.

She thought of all the struggles of her friends, the ones that were fighting now and the fighting that must have gone before. And if Inuyasha and Shippou are here, there's a good chance Miroku and Sango are near as well, probably fighting for all they were worth.

"I can't let them down."

Kagome drew her bow again. Below she saw flames incinerate a spider demon, and she realized that Jaken was fighting them off with his staff, close to the back door. As an ogre got close, she released the string and watched the arrow land in its forehead with a thud. It screamed once, before disintegrating into the pure light. Jaken shot one glance over his shoulder, nodded, and returned to his work.

Kagome drew her bow again.

It took about twenty minutes to go around the house. After leaving the front door, Kikyou turned to the left and went up a narrow path into the trees. Even over the clamor of the battle on the other side of the house, she could hear the pounding of the waves on the rocks below. Making her way through the forest, she came out on the north side, where the ridge ended. Below her feet the ground sloped down into the fields. The hill was a mess of trampled mud and mire, but most of the land still gleamed white. She felt the release of Inuyasha's energy again, and it was shockingly close.

She looked up at the brilliant full moon peeking through the cloud cover for a moment, though the snow still did not stop.

The thing to do, she decided, was to get down the slope as quickly as possible without being seen. She would have to fight, but it was too dangerous to be out in the open alone. The last of the titanic demons were crossing the river. Several had been slain already, probably by Sesshoumaru and his cousin, and their huge bodies lay in the field like mountains.

Kikyou stepped out on the incline, and the snow slipped out from under her foot treacherously. She grabbed for a pine branch to balance herself. This was going to be tricky.

Somewhere behind her, a twig snapped, and Kikyou froze as she felt the enormous pressure of a multitude of demons on her back. She cursed her inattentive foolishness. She had assumed that all of the enemy were in the valley below, and now she had let them sneak right up on her. She turned, building herself up for a release of as much purifying energy as she could. She would take out a good number of them before they got her.

Lucky for her, and for at least two dozen wolf demons, Kikyou realized her mistake before it was too late. She pulled herself in again and let out a slow breath, putting her back against a tree.

"Hey," a gruff voice came from nearby.

She saw a young-looking wolf demon standing no more than six feet away. He was looking at her with curiosity and confusion. His brown hair was gathered at the back of his head, and furs covered his arms, legs, and shoulders. His eyes were a fierce blue that returned the moonlight.

"You are Kouga, I believe," she breathed another sigh of relief.

"Yeah," he answered slowly. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were Kikyou. But she's—

"Dead, or…undead, yes I know," Kikyou said. "I am Kikyou, and I am not dead, or undead. It is a long story."

"I just bet it is."

"Why are you here?"

"I came with reinforcements," he answered, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the few hundred wolf demons filling up the woods. "To help out Inuyasha and them."

He peered at her, pursing his lips.

"You do know that he's down there, don't you?"

"I know it," she replied. "We have not met, as of yet. We have been preoccupied."

"Right. So, what are you doing up here?"

"I came out of the house, and then this way. I was trying to get to the fighting. I mean to destroy those large, ox-like demons."

He looked perplexed, then came to the edge himself and peered over. He swore under his breath.

"What are they? Where did they come from?"

"I do not know. Several have been slain, but they are many. And I think it is difficult, even for the dog demons here, to destroy them."

"You mean Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha?"

"And one other," she said. "Tamtosu-sama, Sesshoumaru-sama's cousin."

"How do you know so much about it?" he peered at her. "You said you came from the house? You mean Sesshoumaru's house?"

"I do not see another house anywhere," she answered.

He rolled his eyes. "I can see why you and Inuyasha get along so well."

She inclined her head.

"You are going to the battle," she said. "Will you carry me down this slope?"

He hesitated.

"I don't know. If I take you into danger, and something happens, Inuyasha will never let me hear the end of it. That is, assuming you are who you say you are."

"I _will_ go," she told him. "I was merely asking for you to make it easier."

He sighed. "Now you sound like Kagome."

Kikyou did not say anything, though she threw one sidelong glance at the Hyouden.

"OK, there's no time to argue," he said. "Come stand next to me. We're just about to announce our presence."

Not knowing what he meant, Kikyou looked around. She saw lines of wolf demons on each side of her advance to the edge of the escarpment. They were lifting ivory hunting horns to their mouths.

"Is that wise?" she asked quickly.

"I will not skulk into battle," the young wolf demon puffed up his chest.

Kikyou thought, but did not dare say, how he was exactly as Kagome described him.

"Alright men, on three," he shouted.

"Oh," he added as an aside to Kikyou, "and I'd cover my ears, if I were you."

Kikyou followed the suggestion without hesitation.

The number of arrows raining down on the battle had dropped noticeably. Inuyasha managed one glance over his shoulder. It was enough to see that Kagome was still there, concentrating her aim on the field close to her. He did not see Kikyou. Where had she gone? Was she injured?

She _could_ be injured, he reminded himself. Really injured, not the snapping or cracking of the clay vessel that used to hold her collected souls. No, this would real bone breaking, real blood let loose, pumped by a beating heart. He still could not grasp the whole idea for more than a second without trying to shake it off as impossible. But that weird dog demon had had no reason to lie to him.

What did it all mean? Who was powerful enough to do that?

He had asked, but the dog demon, Tamotsu, as he called himself, did not know, though he implied that both Kikyou and Kagome had come to accept it as something they would never understand, perhaps were not supposed to understand.

He tried to sense her, but he could not feel anything over the thunder of Sesshoumaru, and he could not smell anything but blood.

"Inuyasha! Pay attention!"

Inuyasha did not bother looking around. In the next breath he jumped clear by a good fifty feet. One of those large, ox-like monsters strode past him, mammoth feet trampling everything in its path. This did not surprise him. What did was that the warning had come from Sesshoumaru. The dog demon went over his head and come down with his sword, splitting the giant monster almost in two. There was a roar, a wail, a gale of wails, and it was gone.

"Hey!" Inuyasha called to him.

Sesshoumaru gave him one disdainful look.

"If you had rather chatter than make yourself useful, I suggest that you leave."

"Are you saying you want my help?"

Sesshoumaru turned his back on him.

"Hey, I'm talking to you! I know all about—

"Whatever you think you know," Sesshoumaru cut him off, "is nothing to me. I have other matters to attend."

"It takes a lot to kill these things," Inuyasha said. "Even for you."

But Sesshoumaru was already gone.

"Yep," Inuyasha muttered to himself. "Still a jerk."

An unexpected break came. The Hiraikotsu came back to her after tearing through a group of demons. Throwing it had become difficult; catching it was agony. But when it was secure in her hand again, resting on her shoulder, she noticed that she was clear. The few enemies that were anywhere near her were occupied with fighting others. Sango let the weapon rest as she panted, her breath steaming in the freezing air and her hair damp, both from snow and from sweat. Her father had once said that his girl had the strength to pull down a horse by its ears, if she wanted to. Now she wanted to cry from the pain of lifting, throwing, and catching the giant bone boomerang.

A snapping, snarling noise jerked her attention back to the ground and without hesitating she pulled the knife from her belt and stabbed at something. It sank with a sickening sound into the open mouth of a Tsuchigumo. Sango pulled back her hand, covered in black, slimy blood, and she brutally bit back the urge to vomit.

"Miroku," she murmured, pulling up the boomerang again. "I want to go home."

Her arm stopped in place. She could not lift it over her head. The muscles screamed and locked in place, like petulant children. She sighed and dropped to one knee, the Hiraikotsu leaning over her back.

It would not be long now. At any moment an enemy would see her, kneeling with her head bowed in the snow. They would kill her certainly, but would it be fast? Would they eat her? The men in her village used to try to scare her when she was child with stories of man-eating monsters. The worst ones, they said, ate your heart first.

Did she have a heart to eat?

Sango closed her eyes, and saw her father's face.

_I'm_ _coming to join you now, you and Kohaku._

She could never think of Kohaku without thinking of Naraku, and an old, festering hatred came boiling to the surface.

_No, no I won't die with that. I'll go back…back to the start._

She listened to her pounding heart, and somewhere in the rhythm she could hear the sound of Miroku sighing himself to sleep, like the sound of all the springs that have come and gone before her. Sango sank as if under water, surrounded by muffled and distant sounds that could not reach her. Her overheated body felt swollen in the cold air. She burned in spite of the snow and the biting air, as if she sat stranded in a baking desert under the July sun.

_There's no end to that desert I cross. I guess I really knew it all along._

A man's voice called her name.

"Sango! Nee-san!"

_Nee-san?_

Sango lifted her head and tried to peer through her matted hair. She heard the sound of clinking and scraping metal. Someone pulled on her, and she rose to stand on shaking feet.

"Nee-san, are you alright?"

Sango looked up into Kohaku's face. His eyes were intent, and concerned, and he looked...oh, he looked so much older.

"Come on," he said. "I'll get you out of here."

"Kohaku-kun?" she whispered.

"Yes, it's me," he struggled to lift her and the boomerang. "I didn't know you were here, until I ran into Inuyasha. He said you were fighting."

Sango listened with a numbed abstraction.

"He said everyone thought I was dead," he went on. "But it's not true, Nee-san, Naraku lied."

Sango reached out and brushed his brow with her fingertips.

"This is a dream," she said.

"I hope not," he smiled at her. "I hope you'd have better dreams than this."

As they hobbled along, Kohaku struggling to support his sister and the weapon, they heard a blaring blast of noise from behind them.

"What was that?" Sango mumbled.

"I'm not sure," he answered. "It sounded like…hunting horns."

Kohaku stopped walking so that he could look around.

"Is it a new enemy?" she asked.

At first he did not respond, but then they started to move again.

"No," he said, puffing as he pulled her. "There are more wolf demons coming."

Sango smiled in spite of her dazed and disordered pain.

"That's good."

Kagura carried Shippou down the stairs to the first floor. Not knowing where she was, she kept going straight and found herself in the entrance gallery. To her utter shock, she could still make out the scorch marks on the wall where Jaken, defending Rin, had attacked her more than six months ago. It felt like centuries ago.

"Holy shit," she muttered.

She heard a sudden and resounding cascade of deep blasts from outside. It was somehow musical; then it was gone.

"What was that?" she whispered to no one.

No one answered so she shook it off, turned around, and went back into the hall. Finding the stairs that went down, she took them into the cellar, almost tripping and dropping the wounded kitsune. The hall was bare and empty, with a packed dirt floor. It smelled damp and old. She turned from left to right, and back again.

Which way?

A slight scent caught her nose, barely perceptible over the scent of Shippou's blood. She had to concentrate to make it out, but finally realized that it was Miroku. She turned to the left. Following the smell, she passed several closed rooms and came to a set of double doors. It was fortunate that they opened inward; she was able to kick her way in while still holding him.

It was almost pitch black inside, and she could only navigate by following the scent of the humans and steering clear of the hot water. When she came to another door, she kicked it several times. It was made of metal.

"Hello? Miroku? Are you in there?"

No response.

"Hello? I need help. Open up!"

A young woman's voice answered, and Kagura's held her breath when she realized it was Rin.

"Sesshoumaru-sama told me not to open the door to anyone but him."

"Rin…Rin-san," she said, "please. It's Shippou. He's hurt. Please let me in. I won't hurt you, I promise."

A few moments of tense silence followed, then the sound of metal scraping on stone, and the heavy doors groaned and creaked on their hinges. Kagura pushed her way in.

"What happened?" Miroku asked.

Kagura lowered Shippou to the ground.

"He was stabbed in the shoulder," she responded. "In his other form."

Miroku put a hand on the young demon's neck. Then exhaled in relief.

"He's still breathing."

"He's just knocked out right now. Jaken did something to make him sleep. I need you to keep him here."

"Don't worry," Miroku told her. "We'll protect him."

"From himself, mind you," she answered. "If he wakes up, don't you let him out of this room."

"Don't worry," he said again.

Kagura was about to leave when she saw Rin for the first time.

"You're looking well," the young woman said, "all things considered."

"I…you see, I…" Kagura stumbled, then bit her lip, frustrated. "I…I must go back."

"I have your heart," Rin called after her.

Kagura froze in her tracks.

"Kagome had it when we found her, that day. She was unconscious for a long time, so I kept it. I still have it. Do you want it?"

Kagura shuddered.

"Rin…" she whispered.

Her throat was dry. She could not turn around and look at her again.

"No, you keep it, for now. Keep it safe."

Kagura fled the room, into the cellar hall, and was climbing the stairs in two breaths. Now that she knew how to get to the front door, she ran through the main gallery and almost collided with someone.

"It's you!"

It was a man's voice. Kagura looked up into Kohaku's face. He was staring at her with wild, confused eyes. She saw that he was struggling to carry the bone boomerang and to hold up his sister at the same time.

"Wha…what?" Kagura gasped, almost laughing. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here," the young man answered. "Sort of."

"He says he's been here, for a long time," Sango murmured.

Kagura was still for a moment, then she closed her eyes.

"I might have known that Naraku was lying," she said. "But Kohaku, how did you get away from him?"

"It was Kikyou-sama," he answered. "She saved me. We traveled together for a while, then we came here. We got here right after the rains ended."

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm trying to get my sister to safety," he panted. "She's been fighting, and she's exhausted."

Looking at the demon slayer, that seemed an understatement. She could barely hold up her head. Kagura looked around, exasperated and torn. Finally, she sighed and reached for the Hiraikotsu.

"Damn, this thing is heavy! Follow me. I know where to go."

"Where do you want to go?"

Kouga yelled over the wind as he tore down the slope like a tornado. Kikyou clung to his shoulders in pure terror, biting back the urge to scream. He came to a sudden stop, his feet sliding on the snow, mud, blood, and grass. She tried to catch her breath.

"I need to get closer to those beasts," she answered, making damn sure her voice was steady.

"Can you shoot while on my back?"

"I...I am not sure," she said. "I have never done that."

"Kagome does it all the time."

"I am not Kagome."

"Believe me," he replied. "I know."

"I really do not see how I can without falling," she admitted.

"Don't be ridiculous," he told her. "You won't fall unless I want you to."

Kikyou relaxed her grip on his shoulders and straightened somewhat.

"Very well," she said. "Get as close as you can."

"You got it."

They were off again. Kikyou reached for an arrow, but her head swam as the world zipped by at an impossible speed and she felt sick. She closed her eyes. She did not need to have them open to get the arrow, place it, and draw the bow.

"Tell me when we are there!" she shouted.

He cast one nervous look over his shoulder.

"Are you going to shoot that thing with your eyes closed?" he demanded. "I have comrades here, you know."

"You carry, I shoot. Is that acceptable to you?"

"Fine," he answered. "We're already there."

He stopped. Kikyou opened her eyes. The monster was bearing down on them like a black tidal wave.

"If you're going to do something," he urged, "now's the time."

Kikyou fired. The arrow flew through the air and landed in the beast's right cheek. Though it looked like a tiny needle in its bulk, the monster screamed in pain and fury. It bent its head down to the ground, snapping the offending thing off, and kept going.

"You hurt it, at least," Kouga jumped away.

"That was not what I intended," she said. "I have to get closer."

"I can't get you closer without getting on top of it."

She did not answer, but he seemed to understand the silence.

"Are you out of your mind?" he exclaimed.

"That is not unlikely," she answered. "Can you do it?"

He looked up at the monster. It had not changed its course after the attack, but had gained speed.

"Hold on," he shouted.

He ran after it, his feet touching the ground for a second or two, then he was in the air, and Kikyou had to close her eyes again. She felt a jolt of impact and saw that he was trying to stay on the thing's back. She peered over the side and estimated that they were about fifteen or twenty feet in the air. She took another arrow from one of her quivers.

"I have to stab it by hand," she said. "You will need to get away."

"Oh hell no," he answered.

"If you do not, you will die."

"You're pretty confident."

She struggled. "Let me down."

"You'll never be able to stay on this thing," he shouted. "I can barely keep us on. There's nothing to hold on to."

Kikyou tried to release herself, but found that she could not. When he said she would not fall unless he wanted her to, he was not kidding.

"We do not have time for this," she muttered.

She concentrated her thought and touched his neck with one finger. An angry jolt traveled down his spine.

"Ow!" he exclaimed.

He landed on his face on the monster's back, and Kikyou rolled forward. The skin was smooth and tough, like old leather. One of her legs fell over the side and her hips started to follow it. Kikyou grunted as she strained to hold on.

"Kikyou!" Kouga yelled as he tried to balance himself.

She gripped the arrow in a tight fist and jammed it into the hide as hard as she could, just behind the left ear. The monster screamed again and began to run faster. It was now in a blind panic. The rose-colored glow of its death spread out like a flush of disease. It roared, a huge sound but still panicked and pitiful. Kikyou felt almost sorry for the thing.

"Alright!" Kouga shouted. "Let go!"

"Not yet!" she yelled back. "Get away!"

In the end, Kouga had no choice. The destruction of the miko's power washed over the monster and reached his feet. He could feel the threat growing closer like the licking flames of a fire. Just as he leaped away he saw her reach behind her back for another arrow, keeping the other hand on the first one and her feet wedged into the monster's shoulder. She stabbed again.

Now the demise spread faster, and the monster bellowed once more. Then its gigantic legs disappeared and the body crashed into the ground. Kikyou fell away and was lucky enough to roll out from under it. The last thing to go were the tusks. They landed in the snow and melted away with a lingering sigh.

Kikyou stood up and dusted herself off. She turned around to see Sesshoumaru looking down at her with a curious expression.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," she bowed her head.

"Kikyou," he replied.

Kouga stalked up to her, shaking his fist. His face was livid, whether with fright or fury she could not tell.

"You...you...that's the...how..."

"Can you take me to another one?" she asked.

He blinked.

"Even Kagome wouldn't do something that insane!"

"As I said before, I am not Kagome."

Kouga stared at her, then abruptly ducked and lifted her up over his shoulder.

"I cannot shoot like this!"

He did not answer. He hesitated for a moment or two, turning around a few times. Then he was airborne again. In a few heartbeats, she found herself on the ground.

"Ow!" she grunted as she landed on her bottom, oddly reminded of Tamotsu doing the same thing to her, months ago.

"You take her!" Kouga shouted. "That bitch is crazy!"

A figure stood over her, their shadow distinct in the bright moonlight, and Kikyou looked up. It was Inuyasha.

[End of Chapter 29]

[Next chapter: All Hell Breaks Loose]


	31. All Hell Breaks Loose

**The Edge of Resistance**

**Book Two: The Dissidents**

**Chapter Thirty-One: All Hell Breaks Loose**

"_Come on everybody,_

_time to deliver."_

_-Red Hot Chili Peppers_

Satou Akira was a common man. He had a common face, wore common cloths, ate common food, and bore a common name. He was meant to live out his life in quiet obscurity, like his father before him and all the fathers that came before that. Until he was fifteen years old, he did not know that he had always lived in the shadow of a demon. On the night before his wedding, his father gave him all the advice he thought he would need. Among other things, he told him he would be fine so long as he did not cross paths with the Great Dog Demon.

That was how Akira learned that his family and neighbors dwelt on lands claimed as territory of the Hyouden. It did not amount to much, his father told him, because this demon was so great, so powerful, that he did not take any notice of them.

"So long as you keep your head down, nothing bad will happen. The demon does not love us, but it will not allow invaders. So be grateful."

That turned out to be a false prophecy. Satou Akira's wife and children were dead, either killed by Tsuchigumo or hounded into a miserable expiration by endless rains, by starvation and sickness. When the two demons, Shippou-sama and Kagura-sama, came through his village he followed them because of the quiet anger eating him alive from the inside, like a parasite.

At least they were doing _something,_ not like that useless dog demon. Some great lord!

Away from his home, on the roads that were drying and cracking in the harsh winter air, Akira forgot what they all looked like.

He was meant to live out his life in quiet obscurity, like his father before him and all the fathers that came before that. Until he was twenty-one years old, he did not understand how untrue that would be. He died under a pile of bodies, a weeping wound across his chest and the thunder of horses in his ears. He lay there for some time, thinking only about breathing, watching the blood cover his hands.

_It's not much after all. Guess that's all I have to give. That's all I owe._

From within the dark and quiet cavern under the Hyouden, it sounded like a thunderstorm raged outside. A herd of horses thundered in the sky; menacing giants tossed lightening to the ground.

Sango fell into a deep sleep as soon as Kohaku lowered her to the floor. Miroku greeted his brother-in-law with all the surprised joy that his wife had been too exhausted or too confused to express. He thanked him again and again for bringing her back.

Kagura let the Hiraikotsu lean against the wall.

"Why did you even let her go out?" she demanded.

"Let?" Miroku laughed a little. "You do not know Sango, Kagura."

He returned to the study of his wife's face. Her breathing was not labored, but he was grieved that she could not rejoice in her reunion with her only living relative. Did she even know that Kagome was near? He sat next to her with his back to the wall, putting his arm around her and laying her head on his shoulder.

"Will she be alright?" Higurashi asked him.

"I think so," he answered. "She's not wounded, just exhausted. Though she would not admit it, she has still not fully recovered from the Plateau."

He looked back to Kagura.

"Have you seen her?" he asked.

"Who?"

He gave her an impatient, annoyed look.

"Oh. Yeah, I saw her. She's upstairs on that terrace, killing things with arrows."

"Do you mean Kagome?" Yuka asked, her face suddenly intent.

Kagura nodded.

The Girls were sitting cross-legged in a cluster together on the floor. They still wore all the furs that the wolf demon tribe gave them, and Miroku was struck with the rather comical notion that they resembled a flock of fledgling birds. He did not choose to share the thought.

"You know she's here?" Kagura asked.

"Rin-san told us," Miroku said.

Kagura threw one glance at the young woman who sat on the floor with her knees tucked under her chin, but looked away again, quickly.

"I can still fight," she said. "I must go out again."

She stopped for an instant to touch Shippou's hair, and then she was gone.

"Higurashi-san," Yuka whispered. "This is bad. It's taking too long. By the sound of it, it's getting worse."

"Sesshoumaru-sama _will_ win," Rin insisted, not looking up.

Yuka ignored her.

"Do you know something?" she asked Kagome's mother. "You seem pretty calm, considering that Kagome is out there."

"Especially considering," Eri added, "that, according to this girl, she already died once."

Once they were secured in the room, Rin, at Miroku's insistence, recounted everything she could remember since the day of the Plateau. She did not go into details about Kagome's injuries from that day, and Miroku suspected that she was sparing Higurashi regarding that. She could not avoid the subject of the first attack on the Hyouden, however, when her lord had been away and human men came to the house. Miroku described the vision that had overwhelmed him when he entered the baths with such vivid detail, and questioned her with such compelling force, that she had no choice but to explain it.

The revelation did not have the expected impact on Higurashi. She had remained quiet throughout the whole tale.

"I already knew that," she said in response to Eri.

"What?" Yuka turned on her.

"I already knew it. It was in the Oracles."

"How can that be?" Yuka asked. "She died, and you didn't say anything? You said you didn't even know she was here until today."

Higurashi sighed and put aside the paper she was studying. In spite of Yuka's insistence that she looked unperturbed, Miroku thought that her face was pale and drawn. The thin skin under her eyes was a dusty gray.

"I knew Kagome died," she explained. "I knew that Sesshoumaru had something to do with reviving her. But the Oracles are not that specific. Geographical location usually means nothing to them. Until I was here, I did not know _where_ all this happened.

"I see," Miroku murmured.

"I know who is here," she continued. "I know Sesshoumaru was separated from his mother, in some profound way, because of Kagome's death. I know what will happen, _if_ the enemy is defeated. I know the choices we will have to face."

"But you don't know what choices will be made, or whether or not we will win?" Miroku asked her.

She shook her head.

"I don't understand," Eri admitted. "I thought prophecies and oracles foretold the future."

Higurashi was about to answer, when Ayumi spoke up.

"Haven't you ever read a fantasy novel?" she asked. "You can't know everything that's going to happen. There'd be no story."

"This is not a story," Yuka said with some heat. "It's very real."

The girl shrugged and looked away. Miroku was surprised that she had spoken at all. Ever since he had first met the group of them, she had been the quietest, usually only speaking when it was required.

"I will try to explain it as best as I can," Higurashi told them. "In the first place, there are rules and limitations."

"Rules?" Kohaku asked her. "Who made them?"

"I don't know," she said.

"Maybe the Outsiders?" he suggested.

Several people in the room turned to him "Who?"

Kohaku told them what he knew of the interactions Kikyou and Kagome had had with the Outsiders.

"Sesshoumaru-sama met them as well, but I don't know anything about that. He's not very talkative."

"Interesting," Miroku murmured, his eyes deep in thought.

"I've never heard of them," Higurashi said. "But perhaps they are the ones passing instructions on to Midoriko-sama. I am sure she is the one who hid the Oracles in the texts that I found."

Their attention was diverted for a moment when Sango shifted and sighed, but she did not wake.

"I do not know who made the rules, exactly," Higurashi went on. "I don't even know what they are, except that there are two sides. Anything that we know, our enemy knows as well."

"That's inconvenient," Miroku commented.

"I know that he must be alone, where we are many."

"Wait," he interrupted her. "What does that mean?"

"Naraku must be alone," she repeated.

"But he isn't," he argued. "Not only does he make incarnations to do his bidding, but I feel certain that he made the Tsuchigumo, and who knows what else. He has allies."

"Before the end, our numbers will be the same, more or less" Higurashi said. "But that won't matter. The true responsibility on his side will be his alone."

"But, we share ours?"

"Yes. We are many. In addition to the allies we have, and that we will gain, there are twelve individuals who are destined to carry…a presence."

"A presence?" Yuka asked. "What does that mean?"

"That is the best I can explain it. They are called the Twelve, or the Council, in the Oracles. They have a second presence that moves with them, that exists in the same place that they do. It is this presence that I, and I think Shinme-sama, can see."

"That is how you knew who I was?" Rin asked her.

"Yes. You are the Bearer. Though, it may be more accurate to say that the Bearer is you."

Rin's brow furrowed.

"This is very complex," Miroku said. "Much more complex than I ever thought it would be. It used to be so…"

"So simple," Kohaku murmured. "Naraku was a very bad guy. Everyone was trying to destroy him, mostly for revenge."

"Exactly," Miroku said. "It was personal. It was all about retaliation, or hatred and jealousy. This isn't personal at all. It's…cosmic."

"It has not changed," Higurashi argued. "You are only now discovering the truth."

"Why now?"

"Because now is when it happens," she shrugged, "which brings me to my second point. Even though we cannot know everything that will happen, we have guideposts, things that we _do_ know will happen, and sometimes we even know when. The timing is important. The Oracles call them 'Chances'."

"Chances?" Miroku repeated. "Do you have an example?"

"The most recent was the Plateau," she answered.

Miroku grimaced involuntarily.

"That day was a _Chance_," she explained. "The Oracles knew what and when, but they did not know how it would end. That is the chance part. How a Chance ends will dictate the things that follow."

"Wait, you're saying that you knew the Plateau would happen?" he asked, incredulous.

"No, of course not," she answered. "If I had known, I would never have let Kagome go back through that well, no matter what anyone said, even if I had to chain her to her room."

"But…"

"I did not discover the Oracles until afterward, when I read about it as something that had already happened."

"What is the point of putting something into a prophecy that no one sees until after it's happened?" Yuka asked.

"I don't know," Higurashi shrugged. "I can tell you that my discovery of the Oracles was an event that depended on the Plateau Chance. Without it, I never would have read them."

"What were the possibilities on the Plateau?" Miroku asked her. "Do they at least give that?"

"They do. They said that either Kagome would free Kagura-san, or she would die."

Miroku stared at her, then took a deep breath.

"So you already knew, before we did, that Kagome-sama was alive, and that Kagura was free."

Higurashi nodded.

"Just like I knew that Kikyou-sama was as alive as you or I," she said. "Though, I did not know that she was here in this house."

"But you didn't say anything about her to Inuyasha."

"To be truthful, I was not sure who she was," Higurashi answered. "I only knew her by her Oracle name, _the Wanderer_. Only after hearing her story did I put a given name to her. Even then…"

She hesitated.

"Even then, I was not certain until Kohaku-san told you that she was the one who broke him away from Naraku. I knew that the Wanderer had freed the Golden-Hearted, and of course I knew he was the Golden-Hearted just by looking at him."

"But not before?"

"That is correct."

"When is the next Chance?" Eri asked.

"That would be right now," Higurashi answered, "this siege."

"I do not like the sound of that," Miroku said. "That means we don't know what will happen."

Kohaku shrugged. "I never thought that you could know."

"I suppose that's true."

"But wait, that means we know the possibilities, right?" he asked Higurashi.

She shrugged.

"Yes, but they aren't difficult to discern. We'll either win or lose."

"And losing means everyone will die, including us," Yuka said.

"The Oracles do not really go into that much detail, but I think it's safe to assume."

"Maybe I should go out there," Eri said.

"What?" Higurashi started.

"We could use the house to set up a sort of triage. There must be wounded."

"I think we should stay here," Rin said.

"I agree," Higurashi said. "When it's over, we can offer our assistance."

"But that may be too late for some people," Eri argued. "It's customary to treat the injured during battle."

"It is not customary for us to be here at all," Yuka countered. "It is not customary to be near a battle, especially one involving demons. We should stay far away. We shouldn't even be this close."

Feeling outnumbered, Eri backed down.

Kohaku stood up.

"I guess_ I_ should go back out though," he said, adjusting the chain of his sickle weapon.

"Absolutely not," Miroku even put out a foot to stop him from walking to the door.

"But…I can still fight!"

"Then you can stay and defend us, if it comes to that," Miroku told him.

"But…"

"No," his tone was firm. "I am your oldest relative now. I forbid it."

Kohaku gave him a startled look, then sat down again on the other side of his sister.

"Yes, Houshi-sama," he murmured.

"You don't have to call me that," Miroku told him.

They were silent for a few moments.

"Then…Nii-san?"

Miroku gave a small smile. "That's fine."

A quiet fell over them. Miroku listened to his wife's breathing, to the drip of water somewhere in the rocks, to the shuffle of Yuka's feet as she paced back and forth in the dark, to the storm of violence outside pounding on the walls. Knowing that the end of it all was only a few, precious heartbeats away could not fully repress his happiness. Sango was here, still breathing, exhausted but still strong, not knowing that her brother's heart was beating a few, precious inches away from her own insurmountable heart, not knowing that the end was only a few, precious heartbeats away, not knowing how lovely she was. But still…

_Was it all worth it? I think it was._

Inuyasha stood over her, resting his sword on his shoulder and one hand on his hip. For a moment he just looked at her. Then he shook his head.

"Well," he said, "you're a sight, that's for sure."

Kikyou got to her feet.

"You do not seem surprised."

"That weird dog demon told me everything this morning."

"Tamotsu-sama?" Kikyou was startled. "And you believed him?"

"Why would he lie about something like that?" Inuyasha asked. "I thought he might be mistaken, or just plain crazy, but now that I see you…"

"Then you know that _she_ is here," Kikyou said.

"Uh," Inuyasha glanced up at the Hyouden. "Yeah, I see her. I don't know what's more unbelievable. That the two of you are together, that you're here…I don't know."

"Inuyasha, you must understand, I—

Something grabbed her shoulder and pulled. Inuyasha lifted his sword with a startled oath, but the thing was gone in an instant of rosy light.

"You never did need protection," Inuyasha said to her, lowering his sword again.

"I need less now, I think," she said with a small smile. "I am more powerful when Kagome is near."

"Is that right?"

"I suppose now is the not the time for such a discussion," she said. "I do not need protection, but I could use your assistance."

A few minutes later, Inuyasha was running through the battlefield, or rather, over it, with Kikyou clinging to his back. He dodged enemies, and occasionally allies. Kikyou looked ahead and saved them in a split second.

"Look out!" she shouted.

He pulled back so suddenly that they teetered and almost fell. A wall of demon energy flared in front of them like a forest fire, blasting everything in its path. Kikyou knew enough by now to know that it was Sesshoumaru. She glanced to her side and saw that he had aimed for one of the ox demons. Looking to the other side she could see that it had been a successful attack. Inuyasha kept running.

"Sorry," he said over his shoulder. "I'm a bit distracted."

Kikyou did not know what to say, so she said nothing. It was impossible to be certain if her own heart was pounding because of the danger or because…

…_because Inuyasha is here. I can feel his warmth, and he can feel mine. Does he know?_

"Are you ready?" he shouted.

She looked up and saw that they were closing in on one of the oversized beasts.

"Yes."

_I am sorry. I am still just trying to think of the right words to say._

Sesshoumaru was beginning to get annoyed. The ushi-oni advanced now in rows. Due to their sheer bulk, he could only kill one at a time, and not quick enough to prevent them from gaining more of the field. He noticed that at least two had been taken down by the older miko and Inuyasha. He threw one glance over his shoulder to confirm that the younger miko was still on the terrace.

She was, and she was still firing arrows. He could not smell it from this distance, but he guessed that, even with the bandages, her fingers must be bleeding by now. A swell of disgust rolled up in his gut. He wished he had the time to go order her back inside the house. The very idea of her blood spent in his service; it was unbearable. He would end up having to fall on his sword for the shame of it all.

_Where did I go wrong?_

Sesshoumaru reached out and grabbed a neck, a wiry, hairy, black thing, and he squeezed it. The Tsuchigumo made a puny, wheezing sound as it died, drowning in its own blood.

_I will live with it._

At first he thought it was not so bad. The puncture in his right shoulder stopped bleeding, the pain eased, and he could still swing his sword. But soon a haze began to overtake his vision and his stomach lurched as if the world tilted up and down. Nobunaga was forced to lean on the hilt of his sword to keep from falling. An unbearable exhaustion washed over him and demolished his strength. The pain in his arm returned stronger than ever.

Nobunaga swayed on his feet and the sounds of the battle around him receded down a long tunnel. He stumbled away, the point of his sword leaving a line in the snow, here and there spotted with blood. He collided with something and groaned, lifting his head and expecting to see another ogre.

It was just the house. Nobunaga kept walking, dragging his sword in his left hand and following the wall with his right. He struggled up a rocky slope until he reached the corner, and turning it, he kept going. As he followed the wall south, he began to hear the sounds of the sea. He stumbled on, sometimes stopping for a moment to lean on the wall.

The din of war faded, replaced with the pounding of the surf and the lonely call of gulls. He rounded another corner and saw a small entrance yard with a red gate. He stopped there at the corner and sat down on the cold ground, with his back against the Hyouden, and propped his sword up between his knees. On this side of the house, the snow had not fallen so heavily and there were few tracks, and much of the ground was still covered in the soft flower petals. Despite the cold, Nobunaga felt warm and heavy with a numb sleepiness. His head drooped and nodded, and he thought he heard Nazuna's laughter.

_It's just a dream._

He jolted awake. It was not laughter after all, but a stifled sobbing, and it was not a dream. He looked around and at first saw nothing but the cold façade of the house and the lonely, red gate. A dense cypress grew against the wall a few feet away and it stood out in the snow, bold and green. The sound was coming from there, and he peered into the branches.

A dark shape huddled in the shelter of the tree. Nobunaga gripped his sword and wondered if the Tsuchigumo had already seen him. Whatever it was did not respond, did not seem to notice his presence. He thought it was turned away from him.

Taking care to be quiet, Nobunaga got to his feet again. His head swimming, he fought to keep his stomach from coming out of his mouth. A strange light danced around his eyes and he waved it aside, like a mischievous sprite.

Someone near him whispered.

"She is the mesh that pulls the points out from the sun."

"Sun?" he mumbled. "There's no sun."

Whatever or whoever hid in the shade of the tree apparently heard him. The noise stopped and Nobunaga could hear their sharp intake of breath. The dark and indistinct shape whipped around its head and he heard the snow crunching beneath it.

"Who's there?" it cried.

To Nobunaga, the voice was harsh and hoarse.

_Can Tsuchigumo talk?_

Just because he'd never heard them do so, did not mean that they were not capable of it. After all, what had they to ever say to him?

The roaring in his ears was not the sea after all, but the thunder of a crowd of people. They were angry, or maybe scared, maybe even terrified. He was not surrounded by trees anymore but tall, blurring forms which leaned over him, crowding him, pushing him.

"The demon will kill us, Nobunaga," they cried in guttural, broken voices. "Save us!"

The dark form came out from the shadows swinging its arms out toward him. It said something, but he did not hear. Nobunaga swung his sword with a mad yell. The figure fell back on the ground and there was a cry of anguish and fear. Nobunaga raised his sword again.

"Please, don't!"

This time the words reached his ears. Nobunaga stopped, and the cold began to finally chase away his fever. The swelling shapes around him receded and faded. Nobunaga looked down at the boy sprawled at his feet. He was holding his arms over his head, and there was a large, bloody gash on one forearm, and blood flowing from a cut on his forehead into his eyes. He was young, certainly no more than fifteen.

Nobunaga gasped, and fell to his knees.

"Oh, the gods save me."

The boy screamed and tried to scurry back.

"Leave me alone!"

Nobunaga dropped his sword, and reached out.

"No, no, wait!"

The boy screamed again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, I swear!"

The boy hesitated, but when he looked up, his eyes were still terrified.

"Wh…why did you?"

"I…I was wounded, and feverish, and I thought you were a spider monster," Nobunaga told him. "I'm sorry."

The boy slowly lowered his arms.

"Let me help you," Nobunaga said. "I can help stop the bleeding."

He looked around.

"Come," he held out his hand. "We can go into the trees and hide, and I'll take a look at those wounds. It'll be safer over there."

The boy looked around, doubtful.

"I'll look after you," Nobunaga said. "I promise."

The boy let Nobunaga help him to his feet.

"What's your name?" he asked him. "Mine is Nobunaga."

"Taroumaru," the kid answered.

"Taroumaru?" Nobunaga laughed. "That's a mouthful, isn't it?"

"My big sisters used to call me just Ta-chan."

"Well, how about Ta-kun? Is that OK?"

"Um, sure."

"Good. Now, how'd you get here? You're pretty young to be mixed up in this."

"I'm a grown man!" Taroumaru exclaimed, indignant.

"Really? How old are you?"

"I'm fourteen and a half."

"Maybe that is full grown by some people's standards."

"Oh yeah? Well, how old are you?"

"Over twenty," Nobunaga answered.

"That's not that much more."

Nobunaga reached out and helped him over some of the sharp rocks at the edge of the forest.

"Believe me," he said, "it's enough."

Fukushima went into the battle with no small degree of hopelessness. Even with the help of the horse demons and the wolf demons that were still with them, they were bleakly outnumbered. To know that there was nothing in the world to turn back and run to made it easier to raise his sword and run down that hill anyway.

Things turned around for a time when more wolf demons arrived. He was still near the hill, on the east side of the Hyouden, when he heard the ringing blast of their horns and looked up to see a horde of them pouring down the slope, screaming with hatred. For a moment he meant to turn and run himself. It did not seem possible that these fierce demons, with their wild, yellow eyes, could discriminate in their targets.

But the wolf demons killed only Tsuchigumo, and lots of them. Fukushima looked around and saw that the mass of spider monsters had thinned noticeably. The wolf demons and the horse demons pushed against them until their numbers were squeezed between their ranks. Many of the human men, who were exhausted, or even wounded, fell back toward the house or the woods in relief.

Another low rumble vibrated the ground, and at first Fukushima thought more wolf demons had arrived, but the sound came from the wrong direction and never rose or fell, but held steady. Fukushima looked up and saw a line of large stones on the northern edge of the field. He squinted at them.

They were moving. As they got closer, he understood that the distance was playing tricks with his eyes. They were not stones, but living beasts, with heads like oxen and bodies at least two stories tall. Their feet were not cloven hooves but flat and round, as though they walked on sawed tree trunks. They grunted and groaned along, shoulders almost touching, so that the men and demons, including the Tsuchigumo, had to scramble to get out of the way.

Fukushima sighed and cast one hopeless look up at the full moon sinking lower into the hills. He estimated that only an hour or two remained until dawn. The tide turned once again.

The choir of his conscience mocked him.

_Show us how you're not afraid to die._

_I cannot accept this. I cannot accept that she will be taken from me. I must do something!_

Higurashi sat so still that it was hard to tell she was breathing, but behind her eyes a prodigious imagination lashed her into despair. She counted off her options.

Going out of the room, out of the house, to retrieve her daughter would be fruitless. The only way that Kagome would die here today was if they lost to the besieging forces, in which case they would all die anyway.

She considered the option of trying to reach Ichiro or even Midoriko. She had no knowledge of how to do so, since they had always contacted her first.

What if she _did_ go get Kagome? What if she took her far away, as fast as she could? There must be some back way out of this place. She would return with her to the well, back to their safe and demonless home, back to Souta.

As always, when she thought of her son, Higurashi wanted to scream. She even moved her hand to support her own weight, meaning to get up off the floor of this dark cave of a cellar and go straight to her daughter.

She heard a familiar voice, and by now she knew better than to look around for the speaker.

"_I wouldn't."_

"_Ichiro-sama?"_

"_So, you've learned my name."_

"_Can't you help me!" she begged. "I can't, I can't just do nothing."_

"_I'm afraid that's what you have to do," he told her. "You are the Oracle, not a warrior. You have no choice but to wait."_

"_But—_

"_No one said it would be easy."_

"_She's my daughter! You don't understand!"_

"_I? I don't understand?"_

His voice was no longer smooth and impassive.

"_The separation you feel from your children is but a moment's thought compared to the separation I endured long ago, from my children and from my mate."_

Higurashi could say nothing.

"_I endured it as part of my task, and you will endure this now. Do not leave this room until I tell you to. Remember, you yourself said the timing of the Chance is important."_

Higurashi remained silent, and heard nothing else. She could feel that his awareness was gone.

"Higurashi-san?" Yuka asked her. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know if it's possible to be alright," she answered, lowering her head. "I don't know if it will ever be alright again."

Yuka sat down next to her in silence. She sat close enough that their shoulders were touching.

"I believe," she said after some time, "after all, that we're going to be alright."

Higurashi looked up at her, surprised. The girl smiled, though the expression was tight and uncomfortable.

"It's like Ayumi said," she went on. "It's like a story. We're the good guys, and I think we're going to win."

Higurashi laughed through her tears, a small and short sound.

"Inuyasha!" Kikyou shouted. "Something is wrong!"

"What?" Inuyasha skidded to a stop.

"Look!"

Inuyasha looked in the direction she pointed. He saw only more lines of the ushi-oni advancing across the valley.

"Do you see that one there?" she asked. "Look behind it!"

"It looks like just another one," he said, peering into the distance. "They've been marching like that all night."

"It _looks_ like another ushi-oni," she said. "But I do not think it is. I think it is a trick…an illusion."

"An illusion?" he said. "Why?"

"I am not sure. We must get closer."

"OK. Hold on."

They ran in that direction, taking great strides in the air over the heads of enemies and allies. The cold air howled in Kikyou's ears.

She sensed it a half second before Inuyasha shouted.

"Watch out!"

They went straight down with a terrific force, and the impact with the ground knocked the air out of her. She fell back and rolled away from Inuyasha, landing face down. She tried to stand up, but found that something was holding her down.

"What is this?" she shouted.

"More of their tricks," Inuyasha growled.

He was only a few feet away and she saw that he was also crouching under the pull of white, sticky nets. They were surrounded by a ring of ogres who continuously belched more Tsuchigumo, who busied themselves spitting the nets over them. Inuyasha clawed at them, having little effect.

"This crap doesn't cut!" he shouted.

"Inuyasha," Kikyou called back, "protect yourself!"

Inuyasha did not hesitate. He flattened himself on the ground and covered his head.

Kikyou was angry. She propped herself up on her elbows and grabbed one of the lines and yanked it. The spider demon at the other end lurched forward and bared its fangs at her. She looked into the soulless, insect eyes.

"This is the end for you."

A bright blush of light flared out from her fingertips and down the net, spreading through each net it touched. The blaze ignited a series of monsters like a string of firecrackers. The ogres backed away in doubt.

Kikyou got to her feet and began retrieving the arrows that had fallen from the quivers in their tumble. Inuyasha was brushing the remaining webs from his sleeves and shoulders.

"You are not hurt?" she asked him.

"Singed a little," he answered. "No big deal."

Kikyou aimed an arrow at the throng around them.

"Wait!" Inuyasha stopped her. "You'll hit wolf and horse demons."

"Damn," she muttered.

He knelt in front of her. "Let's go, that thing is getting closer."

As they ran, Kouga fell in beside them.

"What are you guys doing?"

"We're trying to take more of these things down," Inuyasha answered.

"I think there is something strange about one of them, at least one of them," Kikyou told him. "They are trying to get something past us."

"Which ones?" he asked.

"Straight ahead."

Kouga scanned the horizon in a brief moment.

"Alright," he said, "I'll go on and take 'em out then. No need to worry about it, dog-breath!"

He spun away in a cyclone of dust and snow.

"Hey!" Inuyasha shouted after him. "You'll get yourself killed, you puny wolf!"

"I doubt he can hear you," Kikyou told him.

Inuyasha grunted.

"He is his own person," she said. "There is no need for you to worry about him."

"I'm not worried about the likes of him," Inuyasha protested. "It's just that…if he gets killed, Kagome will be all pissed off, and sad, and she'll mope for weeks."

"I see."

Inuyasha did not say anything else.

They continued pushing in that direction, but were interrupted again, this time by another ogre. Kikyou saw straight away that he was different from the others. He was bigger, for one thing. When he roared at them, his jaw almost touched the ground, exposing his sharp, boar-like tusks that were half as tall as she was. He also clutched a weapon, something few of the enemy had, though it was only a staff.

"Let me down."

Inuyasha obeyed and immediately drew his sword. Kikyou, however, had already aimed her bow and in the next moment released the arrow. The ogre's staff passed before his face in an impossibly quick movement and the arrow disappeared. It was not deflected or even absorbed; it simply vanished. The monster growled at them and Kikyou took a step back.

Inuyasha lowered his sword and the electric energy of the Tessaigabuzzed in the air and vibrated his hands. The winds around him changed direction. The sword responded to his call as it always did, but now there was a sullen undertone to it, and he thought it was still angry over the Plateau.

Inuyasha released the Wind Scar in one stroke. The energy tore its path in the dirt toward the ogre, and then it was gone. In one moment, Kikyou felt the threatening presence of a demonic attack, and then she felt nothing, as if it had never happened.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded.

Kikyou noticed a glimmer in the air in front of the ogre's staff.

"It is similar to what is around that one ushi-oni," she said. "It is some kind of spell, I think. He can avoid these attacks. We must think of something else."

Inuyasha glanced towards the advancing line of ushi-oni.

"That means Kouga could be having some trouble."

The large ogre roared again and took a few, heavy steps toward them.

"Keep trying to hit it," Inuyasha said to her.

Kikyou reached over her shoulder and counted her remaining arrows. There were not many, and she could not afford to lose them into some kind of oblivion.

She shot again, and Inuyasha ran around the beast and swung his sword down on its shoulder. Once again the ogre swung the staff and the air swallowed it. With surprising agility, it leapt out of the way of Inuyasha's attack. His sword hit the ground with a thud and small ring of metal.

Kikyou shot again, and it all played out exactly as before, except that this time Inuyasha tried to swing for the monster's legs and cut them out from under it, but the beast leapt in the air just as the staff wasted another arrow.

The ogre turned quickly and swung the staff at Inuyasha. Kikyou drew a sharp breath, but the hanyou dodged it. He leapt away and settled in a crouch between her and the demon.

"Look at your left sleeve," Kikyou whispered to him.

Inuyasha glanced down and saw that a large piece of the sleeve was missing. The cloth was not tattered or torn; the cut was as clean as if the missing piece had never existed.

"This is bad," he muttered.

She glanced to the north again. The ushi-oni were much closer.

"Perhaps we should make a run for it," she suggested. "I am more concerned with those things."

He shook his head, not taking his eyes off the ogre.

"No. I can't have this asshole going through the army, making people disappear into hell knows what."

The ogre took a step forward. A rumbling sound came from his chest, and Kikyou realized he was laughing at them.

"I have an idea," she said, "but I need you to get out of the way."

"If I move away for one second," he answered, not moving, "he'll kill you the next."

"No, he will not. You must trust me. I will count to five. The very second I say 'five', you must get away, without fail. You must trust me!"

He was silent, and the ogre took another step, grinning.

"Inuyasha!"

"Alright! Start counting already."

Kikyou knelt to the ground and closed her eyes. The noise around her had become deafening. She hoped that nothing would get too close to her, but in another moment or two, it would not matter.

Kikyou took a deep breath. The seconds crawled by, each one ticked off by a flash of a memory, a face, a smell, a sound. She heard her father chopping the heads off fish on the long table outside their hut. She smelled her mother's hands, like warm bread. She saw Kaede's little face smiling.

"_Onee-san!"_

Kikyou reached for that little spot within her chest, the one that started as a smoldering flame, but then became ash after her first death and now…now…

She heard Kagome's heart beating.

Kikyou clapped her hands together with a smart rap.

_This is it!_

"Five!"

Inuyasha flew away, leaping high into the air. He drew his sword and looked back. If the ogre went for Kikyou, maybe he could kill it while it was distracted.

Before his next breath, Kikyou put her palms down on the ground. A wave of light pushed out from her in a circle, like a stone dropped in a pond. The ogre screamed and half-turned, but it was too late. He began to disintegrate, starting with his feet. Inuyasha watched in sick fascination until only the eyes and mouth remained, wide and horrified. They vanished. The wave continued for a few seconds, killing several ogres and a multitude of Tsuchigumo, before dissipating into a faint sigh. On the edge of that field of destruction, several demons lay groaning or screaming, half dissolved. Inuyasha scanned the field for any injured confederate demons, but saw none.

He returned to Kikyou. She stood in the center of the destruction, with wide eyes and glowing cheeks, snow meshed in her long, black hair and her hakama covered in mud up to her knees.

"It actually worked!" she exulted.

He stared at her. He could not remember the last time he had seen her grin that way.

"You mean you weren't sure?" he asked, incredulous.

"The theory was sound," she shrugged. "But one can never be sure until you try it."

Inuyasha sputtered, waving his arms.

"Come now, Inuyasha," she said. "There is still work to be done."

"Kouga was right," he threw up his hands. "You are crazy."

"If I am, I have every cause to be," she replied.

She settled herself on his back again, clutching his shoulders.

There were two things his father had said to him that Sesshoumaru never understood.

The first was that life was only worth living if one had something to fight for outside of oneself.

The second was that humans were the lucky ones.

As he looked over the field and the river valley, he saw many corpses. Most were Tsuchigumo, but many were human. What did he mean by it? His father had not explained it or, if he had, Sesshoumaru took no note of it. His father often spoke foolishness. He lived and died a fool, none greater.

From some out-of-the-way, hidden place in his mind, a voice rose to take him to task for this notion.

_Oh really?_ _And just who are you to judge? Look at the mess you've made of things. I don't recall any enemies charging the gates of the Hyouden when he was here._

"They have not broken the walls," he muttered to himself in a voice too low to be heard by anyone else.

_Not yet. Besides, you forget those men._

No, he had not forgotten, never could forget the sight of Kagome lying pallid and lifeless on the floor of the baths in a pool of her own blood.

Blood, he reminded himself, that she was spilling again, even now, as she fought the enemy before his gate. There were moments when he fancied he could smell it, even so many dozens and dozens of yards away, even over the snow, mud, and sticky, ghastly mix of demon and human blood that was all around him. In fact, though he did not comprehend it, because he avoided comprehending it, Kagome had not left his senses since she stood before him, declaring, _I do my best, but I'm made of mistakes._

Sesshoumaru rent his foes with more violence than was necessary.

He saw in the distance the advancement of another line of ushi-oni. They moved from the northern edge of the hills, pushing their way across the plains toward the river like possessed boulders. Their gray and mammoth bodies swayed on their deadly feet and sometimes it seemed their own heads were too great for them to lift, because their tusks would gouge the earth like the plows of mythic giants.

They were so impossibly large, where the devil could they originate? Now that he took a moment to consider it, it was a confounding mystery. Despite their size, not one could be seen descending from the hills and valleys to the north, nor was there any sign of dust and commotion that would certainly accompany such a march. It was as if they were springing from the ground like seedlings in a flowerbed, fully grown and all in a row.

Sesshoumaru left the battle behind and took to the sky. Pointing himself northwards, he sped like a comet against the night, landing behind the line of ushi-oni in moments. From here, the sounds of battle changed somewhat. Instead of the clash of men and demons, the sounds of swords and axes and pain, the sound of the ushi-oni's feet drowned out everything else. The shadowy hills rose behind him as he turned to see his house, rising above the raging plains like a white star above a storm.

A gleam of an unnatural light in the corner of his field of vision brought his attention round again. He turned and saw a small, colorless person standing a few yards away. She appeared as nothing more than a small child, with white hair and black eyes, holding a mirror to her chest. She wore a white kimono and her feet were shod only in sandals despite the deepening snow. He recognized her.

"You are a minion of Naraku," he said. It was not a question.

Her eyes listed in his direction, but otherwise she did not respond. He was about to speak again, when he was checked by a strange, foreign sensation. At first, it appeared that she stood alone, but then he saw that there was something beside her. The space was empty, at first glance, but the air shimmered slightly. It reminded him of the air in the Hyouden when he had seen the Outsiders.

The sensation, which he had never before experienced, grew in strength. It was almost as though something he could not see pushed against him.

"You will be trampled," she said with a languid voice.

Anyone else most assuredly would have been, but Sesshoumaru was gone in a fraction of a second, floating again in the air. He watched as several of the ushi-oni appeared before her as if from thin air. They were miniature versions, which hit the ground running like a few mice but, in the time it took them to pass beneath his feet, they grew to the same mammoth size as their predecessors.

"I see," he said.

She did not look at him.

Sesshoumaru released the poisonous string from his hand, lashing it out, meaning to decapitate her, but the glowing whip disappeared when it should have touched her, and reappeared again when he brought it back.

She released three more monsters.

Sesshoumaru did not change expression and unleashed his sword on her the very next moment.

He did manage to kill those three ushi-oni before they distended to their intended magnitude, and the malignant energy of Tokijin kept going. The girl, with a slight movement of her wrist, caught the power in the mirror. It did not shatter, but glowed like a small sun, swelled, and grew dark. Sesshoumaru was already considering his next move, when she turned her eyes on him.

Sesshoumaru landed on his feet and held his ground, though his blood splattered the snow.

"You must know what I will never let you leave here alive," he said.

He had only barely dodged a mortal wound when his own deadly threat was thrown back at him by the mirror.

"My life is not the one which should concern you," she murmured. "Neither is your own."

"I agree," he said. "You are the one who should be concerned."

"My existence if of no consequence."

"We seem to be getting along rather well," he commented.

She pointed toward the house.

"You are too late," she whispered. "It is happening. She will die."

Sesshoumaru's boiling blood suddenly ran freezing cold.

He turned and saw the fatal mistake she portended. A line of ushi-oni, advancing across the river, broke apart, making a large gap in their ranks. In this opening there appeared, as from nothing, another monster, much larger than the others, pulling behind him some great engine of wood and metal. Dozens of ogres were scurrying over it and around it like ants, busy in some hasty, urgent chore.

Sesshoumaru was already in the air, he saw an attack released by Inuyasha, tearing towards the contraption, but it was, as she had said, too late. The engine released its energy. It was so terrible that it rent itself to pieces, killing everything around it. The boulder it hurled into the air was almost as large as one of the ushi-oni, and it hurtled towards the Hyouden with calamitous speed, aimed with deadly precision at the north terrace.

He knew he would not make it in time.

He did not. The rock collided with the house like a moon pulled into its planet. There was no telling where it came to a stop, somewhere in the house, in the yard on the other side, or clear into the sea. The terrace was gone completely, and a large section of the second floor was now exposed to the wind, snow, and the insensible stars. Beams, stones, and roof tiles cascaded into the basin. The noise was deafening.

Humans and demons fled the devastation in panic as the heavy cloud of dust and rain of debris filled the valley, then a deathly silence fell over all the lands of the Hyouden. The armies stood stock still, their quakes to their souls by the total destruction.

Still in the air, Sesshoumaru gazed at the ruins of his former home.

"It is only a thing," he murmured.

His clandestine heart shrank from the sheet of ice he paved over it. Sounds began to rise above the silence and Tsuchigumo poured over the fallen walls into the open rooms and hallways. He heard a wail of despair come from Jaken who, bloody and exhausted from fighting, knelt in the snow, wringing his hands. Raucous and malicious laughter came from somewhere nearby.

"The dog days are over!" something shouted.

Sesshoumaru turned his head and saw one of the ogre captains standing over his servant, leering and laughing, and making ready to deliver a final blow. Jaken cringed, but lacked the command over his limbs to escape. Sesshoumaru lifted his hand and decapitated the beast with one stroke.

Jaken looked up at him. Sesshoumaru only half expected the typical torrent of congratulations, praises, and appreciations, so he was not disappointed. His servant could only stare at him, biting his lip savagely.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," he whispered. "What do we do now?"

"We continue to fight."

"But…" his lip trembled again, and he swallowed hard. "But, Ka… Kagome was up there!"

"Stand _up_, Jaken," Sesshoumaru hissed.

Jaken stood on his shaking legs.

"Yes, my lord."

Nearby, Inuyasha, still carrying Kikyou on his back, came to a skidding stop in the snow. Kagura, Kouga, and Shinme also arrived. They stood for a moment, staring at the ruins.

Kikyou disengaged herself from Inuyasha and ran towards it.

"Wait!" Inuyasha yelled at her. "Come back!"

She did not heed him.

Sesshoumaru caught up to her in a heartbeat and took hold of her arm.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, turning on him with flashing, shining eyes. "Let go of me!"

"I am not to be commanded by you," he answered coldly.

Inuyasha took her away from Sesshoumaru without looking at him.

"Kikyou, calm down. That place is crawling with Tsuchigumo now, and the walls will fall in on you."

"That is all the more reason we have to hurry!" she shouted.

"What are you going to do?" Kagura asked her. "Do you have a plan?"

"I do not have time to explain. I apologize."

Inuyasha jerked his hands away. Sesshoumaru saw that his palms were scalded.

"Do not forget, you are all demons. Do not try to stop me again," she threatened.

She turned and ran toward the house.

Inuyasha looked at his brother.

"I will not stop her a second time," Sesshoumaru said. "If she wishes to throw her life away, it is not my affair."

Inuyasha stared at him, then looked back to Kikyou.

"Wait!" he called again.

"Stay back, Inuyasha," she answered, already clambering over the debris.

"You're gonna get yourself killed, damn it!" he shouted angrily.

He shook his head, as if to wake from a dream.

"Why are you doing this?" he cried.

Jaken, holding an injured shoulder, stood beside him.

"No one is more single-minded than that woman," he said. "She believes that Naraku cannot be defeated without Kagome."

Kikyou stopped and turned around. She was standing on a hill of stone crumbs and wood splinters.

"I _know_ that is the case, Jaken-sama," she said. "And so do you."

Jaken looked away.

"Kagome _saved_ me," Kikyou went on. "She is the reason I am standing here."

With that, she turned her back on them and bowed her head. From where they stood, the group of demons could feel her collect and build her powers.

"What are you going to do?" Kagura called.

"I am going to purify the whole damn building and everything in it," she answered. "Then we will be able to find her."

Kagura gaped at her.

"Wait! You can't! Shippou's still in there!"

She lunged toward the wreckage heap where Kikyou stood, but the wave of purifying light was already pouring out, over the stone rubble and torn lumber, over the remains of glass and rice paper, furniture and crockery. Inuyasha grabbed Kagura's wrist.

"Stay back!"

The light washed over the rest of the building, flushing over the sections that were still standing. Like an undammed river, it kept going.

"Shit!" Inuyasha shouted. "It's too strong. Get out of the way!"

Sesshoumaru simply elevated himself a few feet off the ground, holding onto to the neck of Jaken's haori. The little demon, dangling from his master's hand, watched in horrified fascination as the soul of the priestess passed under his feet.

The other demons were obliged to flee. The Karauma were the first to escape, pulling back across the river in a unified movement. Kouga, Kagura, and Inuyasha fell back amongst the wolf demons, urging them to escape into the hills.

The light spread on and on. The glow of it was like a dawn breaking from the center of the earth. The wolf demons watched it from their perches in trees and on high, rocky crags of the escarpment. The humans did not need to flee, nor had any wish to. The sensation overtook them and they gazed at the radiance that wrapped around them like a blanket, filling them with thoughts, with smells and sensations, of every kind of goodness and comfort.

The Tsuchigumo had no idea what was happening. If they had any thought at all, it was glee at the apparent despair and flight of their foes. They did not perceive their danger until it was too late. Spider demons, ogres, and even ushi-oni, fell victim to Kikyou's rage and desperation.

Kagura watched the completeness of the destruction with a heavy dread. In her head she heard the memory of his singing voice.

_Love, love, love is all you need._

Like the tide of the ocean, the miko's power ebbed forth, covered the valley, and then fell back again, drawing back to her and fading away.

The humans looked around in mute wonder. There were few enemies left now, only those near the river, and on the other side of it, survived. After a moment of shocked silence, the wolf demons and horse demons fell on them and tore them to pieces. The humans saw this and rejoiced.

"We have been delivered!" they exclaimed. "The gods smile on us once more!"

Kagura, however, was in no mood to celebrate. She sped down out of the hills and across the field like a shot arrow, taking Kikyou by the neck.

"You killed him!" she shouted at her.

Kikyou, spent and exhausted, could not defend herself.

"I regret it," she gasped. "But I had to!"

"Why?" Kagura cried. "Kagome is already dead! I saw her standing on that terrace. She could not possibly have survived that. You killed him for no reason!"

She shook Kikyou with some violence, weeping and raging.

"Please!" Kikyou shouted, clawing at Kagura's hands. "She is not dead! I can feel her!"

Kagura stopped, suppressing her sobs. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha turned to stare at the miko, and Jaken gasped.

"What?" Kagura said.

Kikyou nodded.

"I can hear her heart beating, even now," she said. "And I could not possibly have just done that, if she were not near. Kagome makes me stronger. Please, let me go. I am sorry!"

Kagura released her.

"I believe you," she said quietly. "I know you think you had to, and I don't even blame you."

She looked into Kikyou's eyes with a stare as hard as iron.

"But if Shippou is dead, I will still kill you."

Jaken scurried up the pile of rubble.

"Time for that later," he said. "You can hear her heart beating? Then where is it?"

When Shippou regained consciousness in the cellar of the Hyouden, he found that most of the strength of his bones and heart had gone away, leaked out of his body like sweat. In that dark, damp place, listening to the sounds of war, the past six months seemed ages and ages in the past, and he felt his insides shrink and cringe back into a helpless child.

Propped against the cold, stone wall, he opened his eyes and rolled his head back and forth. Someone was sitting close to him, with a cool hand on his forehead and cheek, and he thought at first that it was Sango. But this person was a bit too slight, and her hair and clothing were different. He tried to focus his eyes.

"Rin?" he murmured.

She smiled at him, and it was like a flash of soft spring.

"You've gotten older," he said.

"Yes, that happens," she answered. "Are you feeling better?"

"I feel weak," he admitted. "And my head hurts, and my shoulder."

"You lost a lot of blood," she told him. "Miroku-sama and I treated your shoulder as best as we could. We put your arm in a sling, so try to not move it. As for your head…"

"Right. It's whatever that rat, Jaken, did to me."

"I'm sure he had a good reason."

Shippou snorted and tried to get up.

"No, don't," she tried to hold him down. "Please, rest a little more."

"I've sat here long enough," he answered, trying to mask the shaking in his voice. "I have to get back out there. I have to…have to keep it together."

"Miroku-sama," she called. "He's trying to get up."

Shippou heard a rush of feet and felt more hands on him.

"For goodness sake," the monk complained. "Just sit down."

"No, no, I need to go."

Shippou's limbs felt as weak as a kitten's, but he continued to struggle.

"You're not going anywhere," Miroku told him sternly. "You're just making it harder on everyone else."

Shippou fell back against the wall.

"Fine," he said.

Someone settled in the spot next to him. He turned his head and saw that it was Sango. The light from the torches gleamed on her black locks. She was smiling at him, but he thought her face was pale and drawn.

"That's better," she said. "We'll just rest here together a little while."

A lump formed in his throat, and Shippou let his head lie on her shoulder.

"Shippou-ch— Shippou-kun," she said. "Did you see? Kohaku is here!"

"What?" he exclaimed, looking around.

"Hi, Shippou-san!"

The boy leaned forward from where he was sitting, on the other side of his sister.

Shippou stared at him in amazement.

"I can't believe it!" he said. "I thought you were…uh…"

"Dead?" Kohaku laughed. "Yes, I get that a lot lately."

"Apparently," Sango said, "Naraku lied to Kagura about that."

"That figures," Shippou said. "Well, at any rate, it's good to see you. I know you're happy, Sango."

She smiled and nodded.

Shippou wondered if the young man had all his memories back, if Naraku still had any power over him, but he could not think of any decent way to ask. Rin sat down on the other side of him and he saw that Higurashi was sitting quietly on the other side of her. The Girls were sitting in a sort of circle, nearby.

The expression of one of them caught his eye. He could not remember her name, but she had a wealth of soft, wavy hair and a pretty face with creamy skin and regular features. She had always been the quietest, but now she sat as still and stiff as a statue. She did not seem to care what was happening around her. When she absently brushed her hair aside, even in the dim torch light Shippou saw she was missing a finger on her left hand. The injury looked recent.

Shippou listened to the drip of water from somewhere in the dark, and to the muffled sounds of fighting—a thunder of feet, weapons clashing, men and demons screaming and dying. Even though he knew it to be foolish, he strained his ears to catch some sound of Kagura.

"Shippou-kun," Sango spoke. "I want to hear more about you and Kagura."

Shippou was disquieted, as though she had heard his thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"The two of you…seem really close. I'm just curious."

"It's not like that," Shippou said hastily, blushing.

"You're not close?"

"No, I mean, well, of course, but it's just that…" he trailed off lamely and then fell silent.

"I only wanted to hear more about it," Sango said. "It isn't that I think anything is wrong, but you have to admit, to the rest of us, it is surprising."

"Why should it be surprising?" Shippou responded, a little defensive.

"Shippou-kun, be reasonable. We have not been with you through all these months. It may seem perfectly normal to you, but…the last time we saw Kagura…"

"She is _not_ like that anymore," he insisted. "She—

"I am not trying to upset you. But, dearest, people do not change overnight."

"Yeah well, she didn't change_ overnight_," Shippou answered. "But she always wanted to get away from Naraku, and when Kagome made that happen, it did change her. I mean…"

He struggled with the words and thoughts, and his own exhaustion.

"At first, she was still…alien…harsh and hardhearted," he went on. "In some ways, she still is."

Miroku and the others perked up their ears with keen interest.

"But she is also loyal, protective, and sometimes even tender," he said, blushing again.

Sango gazed at him, but said nothing.

"Not to mention," he laughed, "hopelessly clueless about things that are obvious to most people. You wouldn't believe some of the things I've had to explain to her. She's been with me all this time. Even in the early parts of the Rains, when we were both sick and crazy. She could have run off, especially when she got her powers back, but she didn't. And I know now she never will. Kagura will never be away from me. No power on earth will be able to take her away."

He blushed even more, but he stopped caring. He laughed again.

"I guess it does sound crazy, after all."

"No," Sango murmured. "Not really."

"I am just relieved that you were not alone all this time," Miroku said.

Shippou was about to say something else, when he was interrupted by the most shocking clamor of noise. The floor beneath them quaked and he heard some sort of enormous crash, the split of wood and the scrape and rumble of falling stone.

"What was that?" Eri exclaimed, after the worst of it settled.

"I have no idea," Miroku answered. "But I don't think it was good."

"It sounded like something crushed the house," Shippou said.

"Yes. I am not sure how, but I think the house has been breached."

"What should we do?" Sango whispered.

"Maybe we should leave after all," Miroku answered.

The trembling of the house had only just subsided.

"Why?" Rin cried, alarmed.

"If the house has been taken," he said, "the enemy will come in here, and we will be trapped."

"But if we go out there—

"Our chances are next to nothing anyway," he said, "but now that it comes to it, I don't much care for the idea of being trapped in here like a rabbit in a hole."

"I've wanted to leave as soon as I woke up in here," Shippou declared, getting to his feet. "Let's—"

He stopped again. They heard the rush of many feet running on the floors above them.

"It's too late," Yuka cried. "They're in here!"

"We must get out!" Miroku said again, his voice edged a little with panic.

During this debate, Higurashi had said nothing. Shippou looked at her, thinking to seek her support. Her face was grave, but he was perturbed by the impression that she was listening to something he could not hear. Then her eyes widened, and she started to her feet, taking down a torch from the wall.

"Now!" her voice cracked like a whip. "We must leave this second!"

They did not hesitate. Yuka grabbed a rusty spear from a corner and gripped it until her knuckles turned white. Eri huddled behind her, trembling and ashen-faced. The third girl—Ayumi, Shippou remembered now—went along with others with a blank, placid expression.

Miroku threw aside the bolt and pushed open the door. As they went out, the light from their torches reflected off the pools of water and danced on the rock walls. Rin held her knife, low at her hip. Miroku held his staff out in front of him and muttered prayers under his breath. Kohaku, his scythe gleaming in the orange light, put his hand on Sango's shoulder. She tightened her grip on the Hiraikotsu.

They left the baths and turned left, going towards the center stairs. They did not get far before they ran into the first Tsuchigumo. The narrow passage prevented very many from coming at them at once, but it also made it impossible for Sango to throw the Hiraikotsu. Miroku's staff glowed as if it was molten metal, imbued with the power of his prayers, and he swung it with expert precision. Shippou, still weakened, was able to at least wound a few of them with his foxfire.

One spider monster got past them and clawed at Eri with a multitude of black, grasping fingers. She screamed, pushing and slapping at the hands, then the monster fell at her feet, gurgling on its own blood. Eri blinked and looked up at Yuka, pulling the spear from its throat. Another monster fell a second later with Rin standing over it, clutching her bloody knife.

In this way, they pushed forward slowly, cringing as their feet stepped on soft, sinewy bodies in the near darkness.

When at last they got to the stairs, they found no stairs at all, only a twisted heap of stone and wood. Miroku looked up and saw that he could peer into sections of the ground and second floors. The darkness was as bad as the cellar. Dawn was not yet breaking, and the uproar of dust made it difficult to see more than a few feet in front of their noses.

In this space, at least, Sango and Kohaku could move more freely, and they came forward from the darkness with no small amount of violence, hacking at anything that moved.

Shippou looked around. His kimono and neck were still covered in blood, but he was able to move the shoulder joint again.

"I'm going ahead," he said, to no one in particular.

He ran past his friends and up the pile of rubble, leaping over a gap to land on an outcrop of floor that used to be the hallway. He stood still for a moment, sniffing the air and straining his ears to listen.

"I think this is the only way out," he called down to them. "You'll have to jump across, then edge along to that door down there."

Miroku and others caught up to him, though it was more difficult, especially for Higurashi and the Girls, to clear the gap. More Tsuchigumo were coming from the north side of the house and closing in on them. At last, they stood on the other side of the small chasm.

"We have to keep moving," Miroku said.

"We'll never get out of here!" Yuka wailed.

"Will you please stop that!" he snapped at her. "It's not helping!"

"Come on!" Sango said. "We can get to the front door if we keep going."

They turned and started for the one clear space in the hall. To get to it, they had to crawl over more shattered wooden beams, to a section of floor that was only a foot or so wide. Miroku and Kohaku helped the Girls climb to the spot and urged them to the ledge. Just as they were all standing on the slender shelf the floor, which had been the landing near the stairs, collapsed into the downstairs gallery, sending up more dust.

Yuka clung to the wall like a rock climber, peering over one shoulder down into the cellar hallway they had passed through only a few minutes before.

"Son of bitch," she muttered. "This is crazy!"

"Keep going!" Sango said. "You see that doorway to the right? That's where we have to go."

Shippou was already ahead of them and Yuka and Higurashi began inching their way in that direction. A plank of the floor gave way under Yuka and one foot fell away for a terrifying instant. The wood clattered on the ground.

"I gotcha!" Shippou said, putting his hand on her back.

Yuka pressed as much against the wall as she could, breathing hard and squeezing her eyes shut.

"Come on," Higurashi urged her. "You have to keep going."

Meanwhile, the Tsuchigumo were still trying to get to them, but as they lacked power of flight, they could only take stupid and blind leaps at them, usually landing in a crippled, twisted heap in the cellar.

"Shippou?" Sango called from the rear. "Can you fly?"

"I don't think so," he called back. "My shoulder is better, but not so much, not yet."

"I think you have to Shippou!" her voice was urgent.

He turned his head, his nose brushing against the wall.

"What do you—?

He stopped, his mouth hanging open.

From the north side of the house, a crimson blush was spreading across the walls and floors and rubble with some speed. He could already see Tsuchigumo withering in its wake, but this destruction was not particular. It would kill any demon it touched.

"Holy shit!" he shouted.

"Shippou!" Sango cried.

It was getting closer. The glow reached the wall under Rin's hands and she marveled that it made her feel somehow comforted, even in the present circumstances.

"You have to fly!" Miroku yelled. "Now!"

"I...I can't!"

"What is it?" Yuka cried. "What's going on?"

"You have to!" Miroku shouted. "Now!"

Shippou did not believe for one second that he could successfully transform, but as the flush passed over Yuka, panic and instinct took over, and he pushed away from the wall. His senses reeled as he turned in the air, wondering if the cellar was subject to the same threat and if he would die anyway when he hit the ground.

He landed on something soft. Letting out an explosive breath, Shippou groped with his hands and found he was clinging to fur.

Kohaku laughed.

"Once again, right on time, Kirara!" he shouted.

"Kirara?" Sango looked up in amazement.

They could see that Shippou was safely on the back of the large cat demon, floating in midair, a good two feet between them and any surface that was being purified.

"Thank the gods," Miroku breathed out.

"What is that?" Yuka asked.

"We'll explain everything when we get out of here," Miroku told her. "We have to keep moving."

They continued inching their way toward the door. Shippou meanwhile, sighed and laid his head on Kirara's neck.

"Hi, Kirara," he murmured. "It's damn good to see you again."

The cat made a small, soft noise in her throat, and then they were moving through the air toward the door.

"Wait!" Shippou shouted, pulling a little on Kirara's fur.

The demon cat stopped still and looked over her shoulder at him.

"What is it?" Miroku called back to him.

He and Yuka had already made it to the doorway, and he was helping Higurashi into the small space.

"I...I'm not sure," Shippou answered.

He looked back over his shoulder and tried to peer into the dusty chaos.

"I smell something," he went on. "You guys go ahead and get out of here. Kirara and I will catch up. We'll be alright."

Eri and Ayumi were standing safely beside Higurashi, trying in vain to knock the dust out of their clothes and hair, while Miroku helped his wife to the ledge. Kohaku and Rin followed.

"You knew Kirara was here?" Sango asked her brother.

"Yes," he answered. "She saved me and Kikyou-sama, back when it was still raining. And she brought us here."

Sango bit her lip. "I see," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry, Nee-chan," he put his hand on her arm. "With everything going on, I didn't think to tell you."

"No, it's alright. There is a lot going on."

"Speaking of which," Yuka said pointedly.

"Yes, we must keep going," Miroku herded them away from the collapsed hallway. "More of the house will fall in, I think. The front door is just beyond here."

On Kirara's back, Shippou returned the way they had come, to the chasm that used to be the main stairs of the house. The Tsuchigumo were all gone, wiped out without a trace and without mercy.

_It must have been Kikyou,_ he thought.

"Kirara," he leaned forward, whispering. "Do you smell it too? It's faint, in all this dust, but I thought..."

Kirara rumbled in her chest and lifted her head, agreeing with him. They moved up over the debris, dodging pieces of wood that hung loose here and there, some surrendering once and for all to the devastation and raining down around them. To his left, he could see the light of breaking dawn, and guessed the opening made by whatever hit the house was in that direction.

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone in here?"

Shippou's sharp ears caught a muffled grunt, of pain or discomfort, and some scraping and shuffling noises.

"Kirara, go towards that."

"Hello?" he called again as they moved through the air with slow caution.

"Help! I need help!"

Such a wave a relief washed over him that for a moment he felt dizzy.

"It's Kagome!" he shouted. "Hurry!"

They moved faster now, heedless of the threat of falling timbers and stones. Shippou peered into the dust and at last discerned some movement in a high corner on the south side of the house.

"Kagome!" he shouted. "Hold on!"

She was clinging to a large, wooden elbow, which might have been part of the second story floor or the staircase landing. It had broken away from its rightful position and swung across the high gallery to the wall opposite the terrace. Kagome held on to this precarious structure, trying to keep her legs propped against the wall so as not to drag it down. Shippou could see that she was battered and bruised, but not seriously injured. She gingerly turned her head, looking for the source of the voice, and her eyes widened when she saw them.

"Thank goodness you're alright," he said as he pulled her to him. "When I saw what happened up here, I feared the worst."

For a minute, Kagome did not say anything, only clung to him, and he could feel her pounding heart. He marveled at her tiny frame, which trembled now like a leaf, and he was once again astounded how much he'd grown.

"It very nearly was the worst," she said at last.

Her voice was shaking, and she could not stop her arms and legs from trembling. He thought her cheeks were alarmingly pale.

"I was so thirsty, I couldn't stand it anymore. I thought...surely it would be alright if I just went down to the kitchen to grab a bit of water."

"Kirara, go toward that opening we saw," Shippou said. "That'll be the fastest way out."

In his heart, Shippou was afraid to bring Kagome face to face with Sango and Miroku, and worse, with her mother and friends, all at once. In her present condition, he half-believed she would faint on the spot.

They came out the large opening recently made in the north side of the Hyouden, and because of the dust still in the air and accumulating in Kirara's eyes, they collided with someone. Shippou could see that the person was not very tall, and he was afraid it was a Tsuchigumo. Kirara, however, did not seem all that alarmed. Rubbing his eyes, he finally saw that it was Jaken, now clambering to his feet and dusting himself off.

"What the—" the little toad demon started, then stopped, looking at them.

"Hey," he called back over his shoulder. "It's alright. She's right here."

Kirara carried Shippou and Kagome down from the house, and Shippou saw that the fields were covered in the gray light of dawn, dim, as it was still cloudy and lightly snowing. He also saw that the fields were cleared of any moving enemy, and he choked back tears.

"It's finally over!" he whispered.

Both he and Kagome were pulled off the demon cat at the same time, by different persons. Kikyou took Kagome into a fierce embrace, and then held her at arm's length, examining her.

"I see cuts and bruises," she said, "but nothing too bad."

"No, I think I'm alright," Kagome answered, sniffing.

Shippou, meanwhile, was pulled into an equally fierce embrace by Kagura.

"I just knew you were dead," she cried, clinging to him.

"I'm not. I'm fine," he said, struggling to breath. "My shoulder still hurts though."

"Oh!" she released him. "Sorry!"

"What about you?" he asked her. "You're not hurt?"

She shook her head.

"How many do you think we lost?" he asked, lowering his voice.

"At least half."

He hung his head. Kagura drew nearer to him and did the same, so that their cheeks were almost touching.

"I guess we could say that half were spared," he murmured.

Kikyou took out a scrap of cloth from her hakama and wiped away blood that was drying under the Kagome's nose.

"I do not know how you survived that," she said, "but you always seem to get out of the most impossible scrapes."

"She does have a unique genius for it," Sesshoumaru agreed.

Kagome looked over Kikyou's shoulder at him, startled.

"Is it over?" she asked.

"The enemy is vanished," he answered.

She was silent for a few moments, while Kikyou continued her examination.

"Sess...Sesshoumaru-sama," she said at last. "I'm really sorry, about your house, I mean."

"Do not speak foolishness," he answered without looking at her. "It was not your doing, nor does it matter anyway. It is just a thing."

Shippou raised his head and looked beyond them at Inuyasha. The half-demon stood mere feet away, behind Kagome's back, watching the scene with an intent but mysterious expression. It occurred to Shippou that the idiot feared being overcome with unseemly emotion, and would prefer to reunite with Kagome somewhere more private.

_I can't believe he's still so immature!_

"Hey Kagome," Shippou said. "It looks like you got a good bump on the head. Let's make sure you didn't rattle anything in your skull too badly."

Kikyou gave him a startled look.

"Can you follow my finger?" he asked, waving the appendage back and forth.

Kagome obeyed.

"Good. Now, I want you to just repeat some words back to me. Say 'Hiraikotsu'."

"Hiraikotsu."

"Good. Say 'foxfire'."

"Foxfire."

"Good. Say 'sit'."

Shippou had the pleasure of hearing Inuyasha's dismayed realization, before Kagome formed the word and put it in the air without hesitating.

"Sit."

"AAAHHH!"

Shippou was the next one to fell to the ground, only he was holding his sides. Kikyou looked over her shoulder at the prostate Inuyasha in astonishment. Jaken rolled his eyes.

Inuyasha lifted himself from the hanyou-shaped hole in the ground.

"Shippou! You little jerk!"

Kagome spun on her heels. When her eyes locked on Inuyasha, Shippou saw her expression and almost felt guilty. It was as though six months of pain and grief and all the joy possible in the world washed over her at once. He thought she would faint after all. Instead, she checked herself, and cast a furtive glance out of the corner of her eye at Kikyou.

"Do not be an ass," Kikyou told her. "Go on."

Kagome sprang forward like a released coil and collided with Inuyasha just as he had managed to get to his feet, knocking him down again.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha! Inuyasha!" she wailed.

"OK. OK. It's OK."

He put his arms around her shoulders and let her weep on his chest.

"I'm...I'm...so...so...sorry!" she blubbered, gasping for breath. "It was all my fault. What happened that day. And the Rains! All that time apart. They way we all suffered. All of it. It was all because of me!"

"What?" Inuyasha laughed, pushing aside her wet hair. "What are you blathering about?"

"And now look what's happened to your father's house! And that's my fault too! And Sesshoumaru's sword and...Oh, Inuyasha! I really made a mess of everything!"

She was hysterical now, weeping in uncontrollable, racking sobs. It wounded Shippou deeply to see her in this state, but he was glad now he had not brought her to her mother and the others. She would consider their suffering as additional black marks against her soul.

"Sesshoumaru's sword?" Inuyasha's brow furrowed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

But she could only weep and cling to him. He looked to his brother, but Sesshoumaru seemed offended that this scene was taking place in his presence, and he refused to look at any of them.

Kikyou came and stood over them.

"Higurashi Kagome," she said in a stern, cold voice. "Stop this, right now."

Kagome raised her ravaged face, startled.

"Come on, stand up."

Kagome staggered to her feet, wiping her cheeks. Even Inuyasha did not dare disobey the order, though it was not directed at him.

"You are the Everlasting Light," Kikyou said. "The Everlasting Light does not cry. The Beloved does not blubber. The Commander most certainly does not snivel."

Kagome stared at her. "But—"

"You are walking the path of your fate, as we all must do. To try to take on blame for that is the height of foolishness. Do you think your lot is so much more pitiable than that of the rest of us? That you deserve more sympathy?"

"No! I didn't say that at all."

"Then stop crying and lift your head."

Kagome hastily wiped away the rest of her tears and took a deep breath.

"Yes ma'am," she said.

Inuyasha blinked at her.

"What?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Nothing."

"And Kagome, one more thing."

Kagura ran up behind her and took her hand.

"Don't forget what you have done that is good. I would not be standing here, if not for you. At least, I hope you think that is good."

Kagome's eyes widened and she threw her arms around her. Kagura looked dismayed for a moment, then bit her lip.

"I _am_ glad you are here," Kagome told her. "And thank you, for taking care of Shippou-chan."

Kagura pulled away laughing.

"No. He took care of me."

"That is true for me also, you know," Kikyou put in. "I would not be here, if not for you."

"Come to think of it, that goes for me too," Inuyasha added.

"Same here," Shippou raised his hand, grinning.

"I think you can add me to that group!"

Shippou looked around and laughed to see Kouga striding towards them. When Kagome saw him, she gave a squeal of delight and flew into his arms. The wolf demon laughed and returned the embrace, lifting her off the ground in a giant bear hug that made her wince.

"Hi, Kagome-chan," he said. "It's good to see you, and that you're not hurt. I guess that dog demon has been taking decent care of you."

"Ah," Kagome hesitated, pulling back and glancing at Sesshoumaru. "Yeah."

"Where's your—

"Ah, ah, easy there," Shippou cut in.

Kouga blinked.

"What?" Kagome looked back and forth at them. "My what?"

Kikyou looked at Inuyasha. "What does he mean?"

"Ah," Inuyasha's eyes shifted. "See, here's the thing..."

"What's the big deal?" Kagura asked Shippou. "Wouldn't she want to know?"

Shippou motioned to her to be quiet. "Shush!"

"OK," Kagome put her hands on her hips. "What is going on?"

Shippou hurried to her side, taking her hand.

"Let's just try and relax. We can talk about that stuff later."

He waved his hand dismissively.

"Why don't we just go inside and get something nice and hot to—"

He stopped. Sesshoumaru was standing at the foot of the bisected Hyouden with his back to them, where his kitchen garden used to be, gazing up at the shambles.

"Oh. Right."

"Shippou," Kagome's voice was firm. "Tell me right now—"

She stopped and her face drained of color.

"Kagome, what's the matter?"

Shippou glanced nervously over his shoulder, thinking that Higurashi had made an appearance after all, but he did not see her or the others.

Kagome sagged to her knees and Kikyou ran to prop her up.

"What is it?" she asked her. "Are you hurt?"

Kagome gasped and squeezed her eyes shut.

Kikyou looked up at Inuyasha.

"Perhaps she was injured more than we thought," she said.

He nodded, his expression concerned.

Without warning, Kagome released a high pitched, blood curdling scream, clutching her right arm. Kikyou paled at that sound. Shippou felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. Even Sesshoumaru turned around in alarm.

Shippou caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and saw a tall man approaching them. He had long, white hair, and Shippou saw straight away that he was a dog demon. The leader of the horse demons, Shinme, followed close behind him.

"What the hell was that?" the stranger cried, rushing to Kagome.

"I am not sure," Kikyou murmured. "She just collapsed. She is in pain, but I cannot see why."

"Who are you?" Shippou asked him.

"That's Tamotsu," Kagura told him. "He's Sesshoumaru's cousin."

"Eh? When did you meet him?"

But Kagura's attention was too fixed on Kagome to answer him.

Kagome, meanwhile, panted and gasped on her knees, switching between clutching her arm and clawing her stiff, seizing fingers into the dirt.

"Kagome, is it the arm?" Tamotsu leaned over her.

She managed to nod, but she could not focus her eyes on him. Tears streamed down her face. Kikyou tore the sleeve away from her right arm, and unwound the strands of bandages. The ones standing around Kagome gasped or flinched in horror. Some of them had not yet seen the terrible scar she had born since that last day of the short summer, and now it was more dreadful to behold, because it flamed on her arm like a river of lava. It glowed a sickly, dark purple and the skin around it throbbed and swelled, as if it was trying to reject the mark.

"Oh, save us," Kikyou whispered.

"What is it?" someone cried. "What's wrong with her?"

Shippou recognized Higurashi as she ran, almost slid, down the slope and rushed toward them.

"Who are you?" Kikyou demanded.

"I'm her mother," the woman answered, falling to her knees beside them.

"Her _what_?" Kikyou exclaimed.

"Wait, what?" Tamotsu looked at her.

"Did she say _mother_?" Jaken asked.

"Yeah, that's Kagome's mother," Inuyasha told them. "That's what we didn't really want to say before."

"I thought it would be too much for her," Shippou said.

"What is the matter with her?" Higurashi asked again.

Her voice was shrill as she leaned over her writhing daughter. Shippou saw that the other Girls, along with Sango, Miroku, Kohaku, and Rin, had caught up to them.

"Well, the gang's all here," he murmured.

Kagome cried out again, and his attention was yanked back to her.

"We have to do something," Inuyasha said.

"But what?" Kikyou cried. "I have no knowledge of what is causing this."

"Inu...yasha..." Kagome gasped.

"What?" Inuyasha leaned over her. "What's happening to you?"

"Cut it off...please."

"What?" he flinched back.

"Please."

"Kagome, stop it," Kikyou said. "I will help you, I promise."

"It hurts...so bad."

"What's causing it?" Higurashi cried.

"I already said that I do not know," Kikyou answered.

"What is that mark? Where did it come from?"

"Well…" Kikyou looked away.

"Oh, right."

Shippou saw the shadow of grief pass over the woman's features, and she put her hand on her daughter's forehead.

"I already know about that," she said.

"Mama?" Kagome blinked at her.

"Yes, Kagome, my darling, I'm here."

Kagome gasped and writhed in pain, shaking her head. Shippou did not believe she understood.

Sesshoumaru came and stood over them.

"What is the matter with her?" he demanded.

"Once again," Kikyou sighed. "I do not know."

"This scar is a connection between my daughter and her enemy," Higurashi told her.

"What do you mean?"

"She means that Naraku is here," Sesshoumaru answered, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Inuyasha jumped to his feet. Kouga snarled and scanned the surrounding hills. Everyone else stood on a sudden, wary alert, gripping their weapons. Tamotsu, looking around, seemed to notice all the newcomers for the first time.

"Hey," he smiled, sliding up next to Sango. "You're a new face. A new, _pretty_ face."

Sango regarded him with startled suspicion.

"And you are?"

"The name is Tamotsu," he answered, taking her hand and caressing it. "But you can call me whatever you like."

Sango blinked, but Miroku firmly took her hand away.

"And you can call her _married_," he declared, "if you like, and even if you don't."

"Ah, I see," Tamotsu shrugged. "Too bad."

"Do you people _mind_?" Inuyasha demanded. "Didn't you hear the part about Naraku?"

"Miko," Sesshoumaru said.

Kikyou looked up.

"There is a container in that girl's clothes, I believe."

She began to search through Kagome's clothing, as the girl continued to writhe with pain.

"Please do something," Higurashi lamented. "I can't stand this."

"What is that?" Kagome gasped, her eyes searching but not seeing. "I don't understand."

Kikyou ignored her. At last she pulled from her hakama a very small earthenware pot, which had been wrapped in a scrap of white cloth.

"There is medicine in it," Sesshoumaru said, stilling scanning the surrounding area and holding his sword. "It may dull the pain."

Kikyou opened it and Shippou saw that it appeared empty, but when Kikyou drew back her fingers, they were coated with thick oil, almost like tree sap, but without any color. Without hesitating, she slathered it liberally on Kagome's arm. Almost at once, she began to take deeper, regular breaths, and her seizing lessened.

Kagome opened her eyes and sat up, holding the arm.

"Thank you, nee-chan," she said, taking a deep breath.

Shippou sighed with relief, but even under these circumstances, he was somewhat shocked by her way of addressing Kikyou. One glance at Inuyasha's face told him that he was thinking the same thing.

"Is that better?" Kikyou asked her.

Kagome nodded.

"It still aches," she said, "but it's much better."

She started to get to her feet.

"You know," she said, standing. "I must have been hallucinating. I could have sworn my mother was here."

Higurashi reached out and took her daughter's arm.

"Kagome."

Kagome's eyes went wide and she let out a cry of fright, taking several steps back.

"What?" she cried. "What is this?"

Shippou gestured to Yuka to stay back, giving her the hardest look he could manage.

Sesshoumaru stepped between Kagome and her mother.

"Now is not the time," he said coldly.

She stared at him. "Wh…what?" she stammered.

"Listen!" he hissed. "There is reason to think that Naraku is near, and you may be the only one able to sense him."

"What?" Kagome blinked, darting her eyes back and forth.

Sesshoumaru looked disgusted and turned away.

"I think the scar is proof that he is here," Higurashi said. "But he is not supposed to be."

He turned on her. Higurashi looked up into the face of the General for the first time. She did not shrink away.

"My goodness," she murmured. "You really do look like your father."

His eyebrows lifted a tiny fraction.

"I have no doubt," he said, "that your story will be fascinating. But in the meantime, I believe that dealing with the most serious threat should be our first priority. Do you not agree?"

"Yes, my lord," she answered.

"You were saying, you had certain pertinent knowledge."

"Well, I am the Seeress," she laughed a little nervously.

"Of course you are."

"What?" Kagome cried again.

"I can vouch for her my lord," Shinme bowed. "She is who she says she is."

Sesshoumaru glanced down at his servant.

"Well, that's good enough for me," the little demon shrugged, though his eyes were dazed.

"If Naraku _is_ nearby," Kikyou put in, "he is hiding his presence, perhaps in the same way those Tsuchigumo do."

"Which brings us back to this girl," Sesshoumaru returned his attention to Kagome.

It occurred to Shippou that, having apparently lived with her for six months, he ought to have learned her name.

Kagome could only stare at him, then back to her mother, then to Inuyasha, then to Sesshoumaru again.

Higurashi took her daughter by the shoulders and turned her around again, so that they stood only inches apart.

"My dearest," she said. "Do you remember the dreams you had, before you woke up in the Hyouden?"

"How…?"

"That's not important, Kagome. Do you remember when you spoke to Midoriko?"

Kagome nodded, her eyes still wide and frightened.

"Then you know that we are near the end now. You know that fate is hurtling towards the conclusion."

Kagome nodded again.

"Naraku knows this as well, and will do everything to circumvent it, to bend it to his own will. He sent a demon through the well, Kagome. He wanted to find you, or someone you cared about in order to manipulate you. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"The demon got through. I don't know how, and it doesn't matter. When he did, he found me and three others, and brought us through to here."

Shippou could see that Kagome was already trying to work out in her mind who the others could be.

"Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi are here with me. We got away from the demon and Kouga found us in the wilderness, and now we are here."

Kagome's cheeks turned as white as the snow falling around them. She shook her head.

"Kagome, listen to me," her mother urged her. "Put aside incredulity. Remember all the remarkable things that have happened since that day. Remember all the signs you've seen, and you'll find you are not as surprised as you think."

Kagome's eyes grew distant, a slight furrow appeared between her brows, and she chewed her lower lip.

"Your mother is right," Miroku took her other hand. "We must put aside the confusion and face our most urgent threats."

Kagome looked up at him, her mouth quivering.

"It's good to see you again, Kagome-sama," he whispered.

Shippou watched Sesshoumaru walk up behind her and, by instinct, he almost cried out to warn her. Then he remembered.

_He's our ally now._

_Sort of._

_I think._

Sesshoumaru took hold of Kagome's wrist and pulled her back toward him. She stared up at him and Shippou believed she did not really comprehend what was happening. Sesshoumaru pulled her so near that the wind lifted his hair around her face.

"The things you need to ask, to tell, it must wait," he said. "You must focus, if you mean to save the people who are here. Remember, they are here for you!"

Kagome did not answer. Shippou fidgeted his hands and shifted his feet, torn between waiting to see what would happen next, and making a dash for Kagome and carrying her away. He glanced at Inuyasha, and caught the half-demon casting a questioning look at his old lover. Kikyou seemed determined not to look at him.

_What does she know?_

"Take a deep breath," Sesshoumaru continued, "and close your eyes. Remove everything else from your mind."

Kagome closed her eyes.

"You remember well what Naraku feels like," he said. "He is hiding himself from us, but he cannot hide from you. Push your thoughts outward and reach across the land and sky. Feel for him."

Kagome kept her eyes closed, and was silent. Shippou, Sesshoumaru, Kikyou and Higurashi watched her, while the others kept their eyes on the hills and clouds for a sign of their worst enemy.

Kagome opened her eyes. She looked up at Sesshoumaru for a moment, and then took her hand away. She walked toward Kikyou, her eyes no longer clouded with confusion, but clear, grim and determined.

"What did you feel?" Kikyou asked her. "Anything?"

But Kagome did not answer. She took from Kikyou her bow and one arrow, and she walked a few paces away, aimed at the sky, and shot.

Shippou heard a strangled gasp from somewhere nearby and saw Yuka holding her hand over her mouth and staring up at the sky, where Kagome's shining arrow had shot like a red star.

Then another sound grabbed Shippou's attention and he recognized it immediately. The smug and insufferable chuckle of his enemy came down on him from the clouds, and from a long line of painful memories.

Naraku appeared in a man-like form, his long black hair fanning out in the cold, snowy air, and he hovered over them, smiling.

"Clever girl," he murmured. "I've missed you."

"The feeling is not mutual," Kagome responded.

Naraku only narrowed his eyes a fraction. Kagome gasped and grabbed her arm again.

"You worthless excuse for a life," Kikyou shouted at him. "Leave her alone!"

"Do you not think, my lovely Kikyou," he said, "that you have too much to lose now, to be here shouting at me in the snow?"

She did not answer, but held Kagome closer. Inuyasha stepped in front of them, holding up his sword.

"You maybe want to get this over with?" he called up to the demon. "I'm not really in the mood for chatting."

"Are you sure you should be so hasty," Naraku cooed. "There are, after all, so many breakable things about."

He looked meaningfully at Higurashi and the Girls, and Rin.

Inuyasha was about to retort when there was a smart clack, like the slamming of a door, and then there was nothing there. Shippou was sure that the flesh and blood demon had been there, but now there was no trace of him.

Just as quickly, Naraku reappeared some small distance away, a mere foot or two in front of Kagura. Shippou inhaled a sharp breath and his heart pounded in his ears.

"Hello, my pet," he purred, looking down at her. "You've been well, I trust?"

He reached out a cold, white hand, as if to take her chin or cheek. Kagura stood frozen, her eyes wide and her face bloodless. Her immobilized limbs trembled, but she could not react.

But Shippou could. His blood boiling, he sprang forward, tearing Rin's knife from her fist. It happened so quickly that no one could be sure what they had seen. Naraku took in a deep breath and drew his hand away. Several fingers landed on the ground, splattering black blood that hissed and sizzled in the snow.

Shippou stood between Kagura and the enemy, one arm still in the sling, the other hand holding the bloody knife.

"Get back!" he shouted.

"That was very foolish," Naraku hissed, shaking his hand.

The fingers slowly reappeared.

"I can cut them off as fast as you can grow them!" Shippou told him.

Naraku laughed.

"So, the little fox brat has grown large," he said. "Too fast, it seems. You have outgrown your brain."

"She doesn't belong to you anymore," Shippou said.

"Oh? And I suppose she belongs to you?"

"She belongs to herself," Shippou answered. "And I will cut you again if you touch her!"

Naraku laughed again, but his eyes were cold and mirthless.

"What are you waiting for?" Shippou asked him. "You're so sure you're so much better than the rest of us, certainly me, so what you are you waiting for?"

Naraku glared at him.

"The real truth about it is," Shippou went on, "you're a coward. It doesn't matter how strong you make your body, or how many minions you spawn like vermin, your heart is a shriveled shadow of what beats in the chest of anyone here. You were born a coward, and you will die a coward. And if you try to touch Kagura, you will die right here, like the worm you are."

Naraku gnashed his teeth, hatred gleaming in his eye. He did not answer, and Shippou did not see him move. The world went black in an instant, a noxious, burning odor filled his nostrils, and he felt a crushing weight press in all around him. Unable to breath, he tried to stab the knife at anything he could, but the casement around him was as immovable as stone. He heard a wet, tearing sound and knew that the wound in his shoulder had opened again. With a silent scream, Shippou lost consciousness.

"Shippou!"

Kagura's agonized cry rang out across the snowy valley. She looked around and picked up a discarded ogre club and flew toward the mass of black demon flesh that had swallowed Shippou, mad with desperation.

"Kagura!" Inuyasha shouted. "Get back!"

She would have ignored him, but even in her crazed state she felt the building electricity of Tessaiga in the air. She flung herself to the ground and rolled away as he unleashed the Wind Scar, severing the connecting tissue between Naraku and what everyone hoped was still Shippou.

Naraku pulled himself a short distant away and almost immediately the encasing flesh fell apart, revealing a limp and unresponsive kitsune sprawled on the ground. With a low cry, Kagome ran toward him, and Kagura heard Naraku chuckle.

"No! Wait!" Inuyasha shouted.

She was almost to him when Sesshoumaru wrapped his arm around her waist and carried her away again. The black flesh on the ground jumped and twitched, like shiny pebbles on the skin of a drum.

Sesshoumaru pushed Kagome away toward Kikyou, who took the girl by the wrist.

"I would thank you to be a little more prudent," Kikyou said to her. "You have caused me enough anxiety today."

"But…Shippou!" Kagome shouted, reaching out her hand.

Naraku, however, had forgotten the kitsune. His lure had failed and, more to the point, Sesshoumaru stood now, holding his sword, looking up at him with a calm, unwavering expression.

Another mass of grasping and writhing flesh flew at the dog demon, but he brushed it aside with a tiny flick of his wrist and it scuttled away across the snow in the direction of the river. He took one step toward his enemy.

Naraku tried again, but when the same thing happened, he began backing away.

"You will not escape," Sesshoumaru did not take his eyes from him.

Naraku hesitated, licking his lips.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," he began. "Do not let us be rash. We have no real quarrel, nothing that cannot be put aside. We have common enemies still, I believe. You have an excellent opportunity here to kill that half demon brother of yours and I will not impede you. Do not waste it!"

"The kit was correct," Sesshoumaru replied, stepping forward again. "You are a worm."

"Sessho—

He was interrupted by Sesshoumaru's sword slashing him across the chest.

"Enough talking," the dog demon said. "You send vermin to my door, and you think I would stand by and let you do battle with these, while ignoring me?"

Naraku vanished again, but when he reappeared on the other side of the field, Sesshoumaru was already there, and his sword slid through him like water, from shoulder to rib cage.

Naraku fell back and landed some distance away, holding his wound, which spurted blood. It was already beginning to regenerate new flesh over the opening, when Sesshoumaru hit him again. The impact rang out across the fields like two iron bells colliding. CLANG! CLANG! as Sesshoumaru slammed into his enemy with relentless blows. Then Kagura saw the two of them separated once more, and this time Naraku was holding his side.

"Your attacks are fierce," he said. "But they are still useless. I can recover from anything you do."

Sesshoumaru said the last thing he would say to his enemy that day.

"This ends now."

His eyes flashed as a bright red sheen spread over them, and his hair flew away from his face.

"Crap!" Kagome shouted. "Everyone, get back! Inuyasha, get Shippou!"

Inuyasha hurried to the fox demon's side and picked him up over his shoulder, as Kagome herded Kagura, Kikyou, and her mother, back toward the part of the house that was still standing. Kouga and Inuyasha went as well, but stayed out in front, on the edge of the fray. Miroku and Sango pulled and pushed Rin and Kohaku as far back against the wall and away from the fighting as possible.

Inuyasha fidgeted with the sword in his hand. The sun had long risen by this point, but it was a pale ghost of a light behind the low bank of clouds. A warm gust of wind sped across the winter valley.

"What is it?" Higurashi cried. "What's going on?"

"Sesshoumaru is changing form," Kagome told her.

Tamotsu backed away as well, though he stood near Inuyasha and Kouga with his sword drawn.

"Well, well," he said. "Haven't seen that in a while. Things are about to get nasty, I take it."

"That worthless half demon will be sorry he showed his face today," Jaken declared.

Another warm gale swept over them and it carried a rushing roar, which reminded Kagome of a train. The ground shook, and when she looked up again she saw the great dog demon—an impossibly large hound, covered in thick, white fur, with red eyes and fangs the size of swords, which dripped poison.

When the Girls saw him, Eri and Ayumi screamed in terror and hid their faces, cringing as close against the wall as they could. Yuka seemed transfixed. She clung to her friends in a distracted, bemused way. Higurashi held onto Kagome with one hand, and gestured to them with the other.

"Come on," she called. "Come here."

They hesitated, not wanting, hardly daring, to move. One by one, they crawled along the remainder wall, in the mud, until they got to her. The three of them huddled close to her and Kagome. Kagome looked over her mother at her oldest friend.

"Yuka-chan?"

"Yeah," Yuka shivered. "It's me."

"Oh my god," Kagome said, her voice thick. "Yuka…I'm so sorry."

"We can talk it about later," the girl answered. "Assuming we're still alive."

Kikyou stood beside them, watching the two demons fighting in the field. Sango, Miroku, Kohaku were nearer to Kouga, Inuyasha, and Tamotsu, and Kagome knew them well enough to know that they were tensed and ready to fight. Sango's cheeks were still livid and her expression strained, but she held Hiraikotsu at the ready. Rin stood behind Kohaku, clasping her hands over her chest and not taking her eyes from her lord. Jaken stood next to her, holding the Staff of Two Heads with white knuckles, his face intent. Kagura knelt on the ground next to Kagome, holding Shippou.

"How is he?" Kagome asker her, her voice a little shrill.

"I think he'll be alright," she told her. "He's just unconscious."

Kagura looked over at Higurashi as she huddled on the ground with the four girls clustered around her.

"Is this it?" she asked her, trying to keep her voice down. "Will it, can it, end today?"

Higurashi looked her in the eye and shook her head.

"What do you mean, Mama?" Kagome asked her.

Yuka also dared to raise her head to look at her.

"I do not know all that may happen today, but I know for sure that today is not Naraku's last day on Earth."

"If what the Seeress says is true," Kikyou said to Inuyasha, "do you think we should stop it?"

"I don't see how," Inuyasha said.

The struggle was well beyond any of them by now. They could see the blazing white form of the large dog, sometimes lunging, sometimes pinning something down, and sometimes flying back. He battled with something large and black, with many limbs, but no certain shape that they could see. The ground shook and great chunks of dirt, grass, mud, rocks, and snow flew in all directions. The field began to blacken with blood, but Inuyasha perceived that the area was also becoming tainted with miasma.

"Aren't you going to fight?" Kouga asked Inuyasha.

"Aren't you?"

Kouga did not answer, though he seemed torn. Inuyasha shrugged.

"If I just flew into it, I'd probably make things worse," he said. "Besides, if what Higurashi says is true, why should I waste my time? I just want it to be over so we can get on with whatever we're supposed to do."

Kouga stared at him.

"What?" Inuyasha asked him.

The wolf demon shook his head and looked away.

"You've changed," he said.

Inuyasha cast a glance over his shoulder at Higurashi and the Girls, and Kagome, who huddled against the stone wall. Then he looked at Kikyou.

"Probably," he muttered.

"We have to do something," Kikyou told him. "We cannot just wait it out. This valley will fill with miasma."

"What does that mean?" Yuka asked.

"Naraku's flesh and insides are poisonous," Kagome told her. "It's like a fume that leaks out of him. It will kill the humans in the area if it goes on for too long."

"Perfect."

"I will carry you all away myself before that happens," Kouga told her.

"We can't leave," Higurashi said.

"What?" Inuyasha turned around.

"We can't leave," she repeated. "At least not any member of the Twelve. We have to stay here until the end."

"When is the end?" Miroku asked her.

"I don't know. I'll know when we get there."

"Perfect," he echoed Yuka.

"That means we _could_ get the Girls away," Kouga said. "Right?"

"Yes," she answered. "But you can't take them."

He looked around.

"Damn. Where are Ginta and Hakkuka?"

"They're probably up in the hills," Inuyasha said.

"Damn," he repeated.

"That brings us back to the original point," Kikyou said to Inuyasha. "We have to do something."

"I'm not one of the Twelve, right?" Tamotsu asked Higurashi.

"No," she answered.

"Let me take these girls away then," he said.

"No," Inuyasha answered. "I'll need your help to stop that crazy bastard before he kills all of us."

"And by 'crazy bastard', you mean…"

"Both of them."

Tamotsu looked out at the titanic, chaotic fray, which seemed to be crumbling the mountains and changing the course of the river. Inuyasha estimated that they were about half a league away.

Tamotsu shook his head, his expression wry.

"I don't know," he said. "Sesshoumaru will never forgive me if I interfere."

"So he'll hate you," Inuyasha shrugged. "Who cares? He hates everybody."

"Except me," Rin spoke up from somewhere behind him.

"Except Rin," he said. "Now, are we going to go out or not?"

"I'll go too," Kouga said.

"No, I want you to stay here," Inuyasha told him.

"Well, see, the thing is, I don't much care what you want."

"Damn," Inuyasha sighed. "I forgot what a stupid pain in the ass you were."

"Say what, mutt-face?"

"I want you to stay behind in case we can't stop it, in case it all goes to hell and someone has to try to get everyone away. It'll be almost hopeless with just _you_ to take care of them, but I guess it's better than nothing."

Kouga puffed himself up and bristled.

"See here, dog," he said. "I'll get every last one of them away, far better than you could do."

"Fine. Then do it."

He looked at Tamotsu.

"Are you ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be," the dog demon answered.

Swords in hand, they advanced on the field. After they were out of earshot, Tamotsu spoke to him.

"You realize that this is hopeless, right?"

Inuyasha grunted.

"Not really," he said. "It may seem so, but I know that it's not gonna end today, so why worry about it?"

Tamotsu suddenly laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

"You do a spirit good," he said. "In any case, it's been good fighting with you, however briefly."

Inuyasha gave him a surprised look.

"What?"

"It's just…weird," he said. "You look like Sesshoumaru, but the resemblance ends there."

The dog demon smiled.

In the back of his mind, Sesshoumaru knew that he would not kill Naraku, not because he was unable to, but because it simply would not be allowed to happen. If he were somehow successful, if he cheated fate, someone, perhaps the Others, would just turn over a page in some interminable and inscrutable ledger, and then they would all be back at the beginning.

His insides shuddered at the thought of such a risk, but he would not stop attacking. Every blow, every cut, was a satisfying and soothing balm to six months of frustration and confusion. If all he could accomplish was battering the loathsome vermin until someone came and pulled them apart, that was just fine.

The pull came soon, or so it seemed to him. He was about to deliver another strike when he found himself standing close to his house again. Naraku stood in front him, and both of them had returned to their customary state. Sesshoumaru eyed his enemy, trying to discern some sign that Naraku had somehow brought about the translocation and transformation, but the look in his eyes told Sesshoumaru that Naraku had no more notion of it then he did. He cast a quick glance out of the corner of his eye.

Inuyasha and Tamotsu stood with swords drawn, only about a dozen feet away. The rest of the merry band of misfits stood or sat at the foot of the remaining north wall, most of them huddling and cringing from fear and cold.

"How'd they get back here?" he heard Inuyasha ask.

"How did _we_ get back here?" Tamotsu responded.

Naraku drew himself up, and Sesshoumaru recognized the signs that he was once again transforming his flesh. Sesshoumaru pointed his mind, flesh, and soul in the same direction, pulling it all like a coil.

He heard Jaken scream from somewhere behind him.

"Rin! What are you doing? Stop!"

Sesshoumaru heard the rush of small feet hurrying across the mud and snow, then someone else quickly following. From the direction of the house he saw Rin running towards him, and Tamotsu reaching out, meaning to grab her as she ran past him. It was clear that she aimed to put herself between the monster and her lord.

"Tamotsu," Sesshoumaru said, unperturbed. "Stop. Let her go."

"Are you crazy?" Kagome shouted at him.

Rin reached her destination, and she stood in the center of Hell without flinching. At first, she did not look at any of them. Sesshoumaru stepped back.

"That is _not_ Rin," he said.

Rin seemed to grow tall, though not so much in height as in presence. Her skin glowed white and her eyes flamed like little eclipsed suns.

"Oh no," Jaken cried. "Not again!"

"What's going on?" Kagome asked him.

"Everyone stay back," Tamotsu shouted, also taking a few retreating steps.

Naraku, meanwhile, had appeared amused when he saw the petite girl standing before him, but as the ghostly light overtook her, he paled himself, and the gleam of smug triumph fled from his eyes. He stared at the girl as if hypnotized, as the dark of her hair drained away, like blood from a slaughtered animal.

Then Rin was no longer there at all.

"You!" Naraku spat.

Chiyoko stood where Rin had stood a moment before, though Sesshoumaru could still discern the shadow of the girl encased in his mother. The dog demoness smiled and lifted one hand. In it, she clutched the short blade he had given Rin earlier that day, and which Shippou had already used to cut their enemy.

"You have been a very bad boy," she chided.

Her rosebud mouth smiled, but her golden eyes were hard and cold.

"You have no power here!" he shouted at her.

Despite his words, Naraku backed away, and his face betrayed his doubt.

She ignored him.

"You broke the rules," she went on. "The minions you could send, but your only approved goal was to retrieve the slave you once lost. And you were not permitted to come yourself."

"I do not answer to you, bitch," he snarled.

"That is of no moment," she answered. "I am empowered to enforce all rules, and to punish all rule breakers. Now, GO!"

She slashed at the air with her knife and, though they were yards apart, Naraku lurched back, and a burning gash appearing across his cheek.

"Your power here has ended for today," she said. "You forfeit, and the Motherless will never be yours. GO!"

She cut him again.

"GO!"

Bleeding and raging, Naraku spat on the ground in front of her, cast a last baleful glare at Kagura, and in one thunderclap of cold wind, he was gone.

It had long ceased snowing, but now the morning sun broke through the dispersing cloud bank. The Fields of Eternal Snow held its breath there on the precipice of uncertainty. Sesshoumaru looked around at the silent, melancholy fields of the slain, at the cold shambles of his house, at his empire of air.

Kagome left her mother's side and stood between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, watching the lord of the West.

_He will do one of two things…_

The others began to comprehend that the threat had spared them for the day. Kagura, shaking and limping again, returned her attention to Shippou, who had only just regained consciousness and sat up, blinking in bewilderment. The rest of them inched away from the house toward Sesshoumaru and Rin-Chiyoko, with curious astonishment. Chiyoko turned back to him, her expression soft and gentle.

"My only son," she said, reaching out her hands.

Sesshoumaru did not move. After a moment of silence, he opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated again.

"There is no time," she told him. "My presence here is facilitated by the Bearer, but it is a burden. There is a cost to her."

"Then you must leave, now," he said without hesitating.

She smiled.

"I am glad that you said that."

She placed her hands across her heart.

"Still, I wish I could…"

She trailed off and she glanced to the side.

Panting and breathless, Higurashi ran past her daughter and Inuyasha to where they stood and bowed her head to Chiyoko. Chiyoko stood very still, but her eyes betrayed a desperate hunger.

"You…you spoke with him last," she said. "Did he…was he…?

"He seemed well," Higurashi said. "Or, at least, not unwell."

Chiyoko exhaled a shuddering breath.

"I cannot stay to guide you," she said. "I had hoped to, but I took much from the Bearer to drive away the Enemy. Someone else will have to stand in for me."

"Who?" Higurashi asked.

"She is already here. Indeed, she has always been here."

She pointed towards the snowy, trampled fields. Sesshoumaru saw the wolf demoness standing a short distance away, as solid and vibrantly colored as she was in life. Still, he saw the dark outline that surrounded her and knew that she was still dead.

"Ayame?" Kouga gasped.

"The Sacred Iris will help you from here," Chiyoko said. "I must go now."

The paleness drained from Rin as her color had done before. Black spread from the roots of her hair to the tips, as though an artist brushed it with ink. She sighed and sagged to her knees, dropping the knife. Kagome reached out for her immediately, but Sesshoumaru waved her aside.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" the girl murmured drowsily.

"I am here," he answered.

She lifted her heavy head.

"I sort of remember it this time," she said. "Why do you think she uses me?"

Sesshoumaru looked down into the girl's heart-shaped face. Her eyes were her own deep brown again, wide and soft like a doe's. Her hair returned to its normal shade of ebony, except for one lock near her right temple, which was now as brilliant as a patch of snow in the moonlight on the peak of a dark mountain.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?"

Sesshoumaru bent and lifted the girl into his arms, as if she was a babe, and he let her head rest on his shoulder.

Rin's eyes widened and fill with tears, then her little fists curled in his hair. Higurashi and Kagome backed away from them and rejoined the others, some distance apart.

"Do you think he realizes that he has two arms now?" Inuyasha asked Kagome.

Kagome could not answer. She looked past the pair at the ghost of the wolf demoness, who stood watching the scene with a gentle expression. A movement drew her attention away again, and she saw Jaken running toward Sesshoumaru and Rin, leaving his staff behind. When he got to them, it seemed he had reached his only goal, but Kagome saw one pale hand appear from behind Rin's hair and rest for a brief moment on the little demon's shoulder. Even from where she stood, Kagome could see the mystified wonder in Jaken's eyes, and understood that he did not dare move or even look up for fear of breaking some spell. She tore her eyes away.

A new serenity allowed Kagome to take it all in for the first time. Her limbs shook with exhaustion after a night of fighting, but all the terror, dread, and confusion, the agony of guilt, which possessed her since the siege began—

No, since long before that.

It dissipated like the snowy clouds above them. She looked around at the people who had shared the long road since the Jewel was shattered, those who had cared for her since the Plateau, and those that had known her all her life, only now seeing her for all that she was.

There was going to be a _lot_ of talking over the next few days.

Kagome took Inuyasha's hand and brought him to where Miroku and Sango stood, then she turned and beckoned to Shippou. The young fox demon stumbled towards them, clambering over the fallen rocks and wood and trying to balance with one arm. Kagura reached out to assist him, but he waved her off, giving her a smile.

The five of them clustered together, with the addition of Kirara perched on Sango's shoulder. They put their heads down and threw their arms around each other's necks. Kagura, Higurashi, Kouga, Tamotsu, and the Girls, looked on, but did not interfere.

After some time passed this way, everyone looked up and saw that Ayame stood now among them, shining and vivid, like a pillar of spring in that winter morning.

"The Days of the Short Sun have ended," she said. "The Days of the Long Sun have begun."

[End of Chapter 30, ending the "dissidents" period]

[End of Book Two]

[Continue the story in "The Days of the Long Sun"_, _book three of_ The Edge of Resistance._]

**Author's notes:**

So this chapter was stupid long, right? If you think so, feel free to say it in the reviews/comments.

Well, it's taken a long time to get this far. I don't even like to think how long. I want to sincerely thank anyone who has read this much. EoR means a great deal to me. I carry the story with me constantly, even now that the original series is something of a distant memory to me.

These last chapters of Book Two have been the most difficult, by far, because we are building an almost impossibly large cast. It's challenging to keep everyone straight, to know what everyone is doing or saying at any one time. Keeping everything straight when we had so many characters scattered and separate was difficult as well, but I think this is more so. Anyway, because of the complicated nature of the story, I would like to offer the reader a few tidbits that I've put together.

The first is a timeline. I actually relied on this heavily while writing most of Book One and pretty much all of Book Two. It details what happens on each day since the beginning of the story, so you can see how it all fits together. Just copy and paste the location below into your web browser.

gallery/40157923

There is also some related artwork in this location…doodles I've done over the years.

Lastly, I would like to talk about music. There are songs and poems that are original to the story, like the ones sung by Kohaku, Nazuna, and Ayame (as a ghost). There'll be more to come, and at some point I'll compile them all somewhere.

But the story and most of the characters also have "theme" songs, music which inspired me to write certain chapters or scenes, or which I just listened to regularly while writing. I hope you plug some into YouTube, if you don't know them already.

The theme of Book One, and really of the whole story, is "Love, Reign O'er Me". Originally performed by The Who, I usually listen to the Pearl Jam version. Verses of the song were repeated by most of the main characters at one time or another, usually during their worst, craziest moments during the Rains. It represents the bond between them that remains, even when they don't realize it.

Another important song is "I'm An Animal", by Neko Case. One line from this song became a common thread that connects all the protagonists in the story, though I consider it Chiyoko's personal theme.

I listened to "Winter" by The Rolling Stones over and over while writing the earlier chapters of Book Two, when the characters are mostly separated and wandering in the harsh cold.

Some others:

"Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol. Totally Shippou and Kagura!

"Brendan's Death Song" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Ichiro's song.

"Dog Days are Over" by Florence + the Machine. Kagome's song.

"The Cave" by Mumford and Sons. Kagura's song.

"This Tornado Loves You" by Neko Case. Kouga's song.

Other songs that inspired me:

"Furnace Room Lullaby" by Neko Case

"The Scientist" by Coldplay (though I prefer the Willie Nelson version).

"Off He Goes" and "Come Back" by Pearl Jam

"The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac

"Weeks Go By Like Days" by My Morning Jacket

"Where the Streets Have No Name" and "All I Want is You" by U2

"Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd

"Digital Ghost" and "Lust" by Tori Amos

"Iris" and "Lightning Crashes" by Live

"Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

"No One's Gonna Love You" and "Funeral" by Band of Horses.


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